The pollies of youth

By William Brougham

Budding politicians from across the state took part in last week’s Youth Parliament at NSW Parliament House.

The 90 students, aged between 15 and 18, were divided into committees ranging from climate change, regional affairs and justice; to transport, health and education.

The NSW Commissioner for Children and Young People, Megan Mitchell, attended the opening ceremony.

“Parliament is the foundation of democracy and it’s important that young people are still heard despite the fact they don’t vote,” she said.

The Youth Parliament is run and organised by the NSW Council of YMCAs and provides a way for young people to put across their ideas on issues that concern them.

Those selected to take part attended a weekend training camp in April where they met and learnt how to develop a bill.

This year, for the first time, Youth Parliament split into Government and Opposition based on student’s votes in recent elections for Youth Premier and Opposition Leader.

State MPs including Steve Cansdell, Penny Sharpe and Jonathon O’Dea acted as Speaker for debates, while former Premier Nathan Rees also gave up time afterwards for a question and answer session with the students.

On Tuesday, four bills were presented to the Youth Parliament and three were passed including a bill to create adolescent wards in hospitals and a bill to reduce instances of isolation used as punishment in schools.

After Parliament finished sitting for the day on Tuesday, students attended a reception hosted by Governor Marie Bashir at NSW Government House where she described young people as Australia’s greatest resource.

On Thursday the Youth Parliament sat for its final day with five more bills presented to the House.

At the closing ceremony all bills passed by the Youth Parliament were presented to the Leader of the House, John Aquilina, and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Jillian Skinner.