Mission Australia conducts an Annual Survey of young people aged 15-19 years, it is national, and aims to identify the values and issues of concern to young people.

The 2014 Survey was released recently, covering some 13,600 respondents - 61.2 per cent female/38.85 per cent male; 19.75 per cent spoke a language other than English at home; and 5.6 per cent were Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.

The top issue, in the words of the Survey, was that eight in 10 felt achieving career success and being financially independent were highly important.

Disturbingly, of these young people, only 6 in 10 felt that these aspirations were likely to be achievable.

The second issue was that seven in 10 felt that owning their own home was highly important.

Again, disturbingly, of these young people, seven in 10 felt that home ownership was achievable. The base economic numbers certainly confirm this. Youth unemployment is now measured in the teens, more than double the overall unemployment rate, with rising underemployment.

Average house prices in Sydney and Melbourne are rising rapidly beyond their realistic capacity to pay.

In the Survey, education was felt to be the number one influence on young people's future career prospects, followed by hard work.

Interestingly, in the Survey, only 54.4 per cent of males plan to go to university, compared with 71.9 per cent of females, but 25.1 per cent of young women felt that gender would influence their career opportunities in the future.

Two interesting, specific, comments by a couple of young people were: "I want to get the best out of my education and achieve a successful career but I have no idea what I want to do, or how to get there", and, "Many young people are full of potential but the pathways for them to reach that potential are unclear".

So much has changed since I was a kid in the early postwar period, a so-called "baby boomer".

The thrust was to get a job, mostly with the expectation of keeping it for most of my working life. Today, young people can expect to have several careers, probably needing to retrain each time.

My father advised me "to get as much education, as fast as I could", but I needed to win scholarships to do so, as money was very tight, as he struggled to buy a home in which to raise four kids, that is mum stayed at home to raise us.

As tough as it was, or as it seemed at the time, it was possible, and the "system" was working in our favour to make it possible.

Young people today seem to have, justifiably, much less confidence in "the system" working to make it possible.

Hence, the bewilderment of our youth about this Government's recent Budget decisions to "deregulate universities" and to cut some $2 billion out of training and apprenticeships, etc. - many fearing that the essential education was getting beyond their reach, in a world where job prospects are fewer, and job security less.

There was similar bewilderment about the "work-for-the-dole" proposals and cuts to Newstart allowances for those under 30.

Not surprisingly, mental health has increasingly been identified by our youth as a key national issue - 12.7 per cent in 2012, 15.2 per cent in 2013, rising to 18.5 per cent in 2014, and almost a quarter identified alcohol and drugs as an important issue facing Australia in 2014.

They are told that the government won't leave them with a legacy of debt and deficits, or the expectation of "an age of entitlement".

That is, government will leave them to increasingly fend for themselves in an increasingly uncertain world, where "the system" seems to be working to constrain their opportunities and capacities.

One youth commented: "People need to engage with politics, watch the news more, engage in conversations and debate, realise that the policies affect us".

AMEN.