Agata would much rather see her peers and fellow townspeople searching for the important things – like politics and, particularly, climate change.

It’s her passion for those topics that saw her invited to speak at the Belmore Park March Australia rally earlier this month, and her determination to encourage youth activism which saw her elected as Goulburn Mulwaree Council Youth Mayor just weeks ago.

Ignorance is inexcusable, Agata told the Post on Wednesday.

“I feel personally that everyone should be interested in the world and their community because we live in this world so why not try and change it for the better?” she said.

“One thing I said at the rally was that the people who voted to ‘axe the tax’ will be dead by the time that big consequences of climate change become apparent. It’s really important to try to counter that, especially because Australia is so far behind on the world scale…” Agata expressed concern toward how unaware her peers were to current affairs and stressed that making a difference or becoming educated was as simple as a click.

“I think there’s a lot of ignorance in society when it comes to climate change coming from Goulburn. A lot of youth aren’t interested in it at all but I feel that it’s a very important issue.

“They could just Google ‘climate change’, it’s that easy.”

Now elected as Youth Mayor, Agata hopes to voice local issues to the wider community.

She said the youth council itself had undergone huge changes in the past few months, with membership numbers now through the roof compared to when she went along to her first meeting.

“There was a time when I remember our meetings were literally just two people but nowadays we have at least ten regular members and we have people who come and go.

My plan is to get our voice out there,” she said.

The youth council meets on the last Friday of every month at the Council Chambers, at 6pm.