The consultation - to be held at the picnic by the lake on Sunday, May 18 - will allow local young people to meet up with the two UN youth representatives, Melanie Poole and Elizabeth Shaw. Ms Poole and Ms Shaw will spend five months touring Australia and talking to young Australians about how they see Australia and how they see the world.

In September they will take those concerns to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where they will be fully accredited members of the Australian delegation.

In this capacity, they will meet with the Secretary General and address the General Assembly on behalf of Australia.

Ms Poole, an Arts/Law student at The Australian National University, has worked as a volunteer in Kenya caring for HIV / AIDS affected children and as a community services support worker at a refugee camp on the border of Kenya and Sudan. She has a passionate interest in indigenous affairs and gender issues. She has also worked in Pakistan where she conducted fieldwork research on education.

She said that the consultation was an opportunity for local young people to know that their concerns can be heard at the highest level of government.

“I’m looking forward to meeting local young people and hearing about what concerns they’d like me to take to the United Nations,” she said.

“This is a chance to get important voices heard, including the voices of disadvantaged and marginalised youth, and to generate meaningful responses to the issues they raise. It’s also a chance to foster connections between young Australians and the rest of the world’s youth.”

Elizabeth Shaw is a law student at the University of Western Australia and is currently Chair of the Perth City Council Youth Advisory Committee. She has previously worked on projects with the Red Cross Youth Advisory Committee.

The consultation tour is taking in over 400 towns across Australia and aims to meet up with more than 4,000 young people. It is funded entirely through fundraising undertaken by the representatives.