Laylah Al-Saimary - No. 2 Victorian Senate

In November 2022 the IAPA attempted to become State registered in Victoria but fell short so we turned that momentum and energy to backing two independent candidates, one being young Barkindji woman, Laylah Al-Saimary, in the Legislative Assembly District of Melbourne (CBD).

Having just turned 18, Laylah stood for parliament in the very first election she was eligible to vote in with many voters admiring the courage and commitment shown by that decision. Laylah came to Melbourne after retail jobs collapsed in Mildura during the COVID crisis. She worked 60 hours weeks in a cafe, sending home money to her single Mum, Leanne, to help support her two sisters.

Melbourne CBD voters were very taken with Laylah’s story and her detailed practical policy proposals, giving her a remarkable 7.1 % of the vote at the Queen Victoria Voting Centre where IAPA volunteers were able to give out how-to-vote cards and advocate all day. The long queues allowed her remarkable how-to-vote cards to be pitched to the voters. This will need to be a model for future elections.

Laylah is a young proud Barkindji woman who grew up in Mildura in regional Victoria and has been the youth spokesperson for the Indigenous - Aboriginal Party of Australia from the very start.

Laylah wanted Indigenous youth to have a say in issues which affect them and still does. Laylah has been spurred to run in that election and this federal contest for many of the same reasons we became a political party:

“There needs to be a change of the way we do things in Australia......education, detention, foster care......”

 She is passionate about education particularly for ‘school refusers’. Laylah herself was what is referred to as a 'school refuser' and her personal experiences placed Laylah in the perfect place to speak about issues affecting more and more of our young people in Australia. A school refuser is a young person who does not fit into our mainstream schooling system, so they drop out of school, resulting in a loss of all the social and empowering imputs school can bring.......school refusers are pushed to the fringes and are vulnerable to getting lost in isolation, mental illness issues, crime and drug use.

Here in Laylah’s own words in 2022:

“I know 18 [Laylahis still only 20] is young to be standing for parliament but someone must stand up for Indigenous youth needs, in the regions and elsewhere.”

“I am a school refuser and we desperately need alternative schools in the regions; Indigenous controlled. My Mum was Chair of an Indigenous Corporation which tried to set up an alternative school in Mildura but we were just squashed by the VRQA [Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority]”

 "We need alternative schools that cater to kids who don't fit into mainstream schooling. Our Indigenous controlled schools would welcome any school refuser with our alternative curriculum focusing on health, art, sport, cooking and Indigenous culture as well as reading and writing. School refusers, of which I am one, are basically ignored. We are the group most likely to be jailed, especially if you are a boy.”

“I would like to see the bush have the same level of mental health and drug and alcohol rehab services as Melbourne. I am only 18 but I know young people who would go to youth rehab centers if they were available.”

“I would like to see Indigenous homework and drop in centres in every town in this state. These centres could be a haven for struggling and lost kids and provide fresh fruit as well as help with reading, writing and homework. They would need to be Indigenous controlled, so Indigenous kids would feel welcome there."

So Laylah’s Victorian State based polices in late 2022 were:

• Establish Youth Rehabilitation Centres in Mildura and other regional areas to help young drug addicts get off drugs.

• Eastablish Youth Hubs in regional areas. Incorporate Youth Drop-in Centres and Indigenous Homework Centres where there is access to Indigenous Mentors.

• Alternative Schools for School Refusers - Support the Indigenous women who are attempting to establish them.

• Reform the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA) so that it becomes an authority to assist and encourage the establishment of schools for Indigenous and non-Indigenous School Refusers.

• Youth Homelessness in the Regions - Programs to get young alienated people of the streets

• Climate Change - More effective and serious action.

In 2022 the Victorian Coroner’s Court reported that Victoria’s suicide rate had been increasing steadily since 2018, jumping by more than 50% in just the previous year. The report found those in the regions and the young were most at risk.

The report particularly found that half of Indigenous suicides in the past four years happened in regional communities, where access to services is limited. With no dedicated drug and alcohol treatment services, the Aboriginal community in Mildura was noted as being of particularly high risk.

The report noted the deaths were often associated with engagement with police and the justice system close to their passing, relationship breakdowns and a lack of access to stable accommodation.

In March 2025 the Victorian Coroner reported that the suicide rate for Indigenous Victorians was 3 times higher than the general population and, while Victoria is often missing from comparison tables, probably one of the worst in the country after Western Australia.

57 % of Indigenous people who died by suicide between 2020 - 2024 were under 35 years old, compared to only 30% of non-Indigenous people in the same age group.

Indigenous deaths by suicide have increased by 42% since 2022

For Indigenous people suicide deaths in regional and remote areas were markedly higher with 55% occurring in regional areas compared to 45% in the city despite the higher urban population and in stark contrast to non-indigenous suicides where 66% are in metropolitan areas.

So while Laylah’s observations were not focused on suicide particularly, the suicide rate is a fair proxy for the sort of stress, mental health problems and alienation experienced by youth in the Victorian regions and described by Laylah..

So an intelligent young woman was able in the years leading up to 2022 to foretell the deterioration in Indigenous youth mental health in Victoria’s regions, pinpoint the key issues of homelessness or unstable accommodation, contact with the justice system and drug use. Her insightful observations about this alienation starting from and/or causing school refusal led her to solutions focused on the root causes. She noted the lack of drug and alcohol rehabilitation services in regions, especially for young people and especially in Mildura.

She was also able to identify a number of simple cost effective solutions aimed at the causes of the problem. The Victorian State government’s response was to announce a $36 million 20 bed residential drug rehabilitation unit which will only serve adults. The unit is yet to open.

Whole most of these issues are particularly the responsibilities of the States, the federal government can easily choose to apply grants affecting State responsibilities when it so chooses . The bureaucratic intransigence of of the VRQA finds its federal equivalent in the overfunding of elite private schools at the expense of State schools and the possibility of small alternative culturally sensitive , ‘special assistance’ schools.

So a little over 2 years later, Laylah is back in Melbourne to start studying to be a registered nurse. Thanks to understanding from he mother, sisters and some others close to her, as well as her own individual intelligence and drive, Laylah ended up being able to negotiate a conventional school for her senior year. She also spent a good part of that time helping her mother caretake Mungo National Park in NSW, a time of peace, safety and serenity. Not all ‘school refusers’ are able to find this sort of path back to study.