Last week was the Youth Parliament in Wellington. This occurs once every three years when each MP nominates a young person aged between 16 and 18 to be their Youth MP. That person comes to Wellington and does everything that a MP would usually do when the House of Representatives is sitting. So they sit on select committees, attend caucuses, ask oral questions and debate a bill on the floor of the House.

Each MP has their own way of choosing their Youth MP. I am an electorate MP, not a list MP and so I look for someone who is representative of the Tamaki electorate. What I do is ask each of the four secondary schools in the electorate to nominate one of their students for the role. I then interview each of the nominees to make a selection. I do not rotate the opportunity around the schools, I select who I think will be the best choice from those nominated. When I interview them I ask them about themselves, their schoolwork, their future plans, their contribution to their community and their understandings about Parliament, the nature of a representative democracy and the role of an electorate MP.

My Youth MP this year is Vainga Pahulu of Tamaki College. To learn more about Vainga and why I chose her take a quick look at this link: Click Here