The young man whose experience in youth detention helped spark a royal commission has announced he will seek a seat on the Alice Springs Town Council when elections are held next month.
Dylan Voller said he would seek a seat on the council at the local government elections in August.
"I'm one of the people in this community that has a voice now and I would like to use my voice to help out a lot of people who don't have a voice," he said.
"That's everyone, the whole wider community, even the people who don't like the stuff I'm doing."
Mr Voller said he hoped to use his experience of the youth justice system to help find long-term solutions to youth crime in Alice Springs.
"I've got a pretty good insight into that sort of stuff so I want to be able to work with the kids and with their families and communicate with the council to be able to take their concerns up to people to listen."
The 19-year-old said he did not have any policies to propose, but would be consulting with the community to find out what was important to them.
"I will listen to everyone, not one certain group or one certain colour or one certain age group. I'll be listening to everyone," he said.
"If we don't listen to all those different opinions there's never going to be an outcome."
Mr Voller said he had no other political aspirations.
"I don't really think politics is my thing, but this is just something I can do to help the community I guess."
'Diversity on council is essential'
Alice Springs Town councillor Eli Melky, who often proposed motions relating to youth crime, said different opinions and experiences were vital to the success of a council.
"Diversity is essential and key and we need a balance of young, experienced, male [and] female," he said.
"You need everybody in there and different cultures and we have that in there at the moment so moving forward it would be great to have the same.
"Whatever [Mr Voller] chooses to bring from his experience, we will benefit from and whoever puts their hand up and is successful, when they contribute to the debate, we'll only end up with a better result."
