It was the students’ questions that left the biggest impression, proof that an honest discussion with kids can break down barriers and get to the core of things.
Five MPs travelled to Westport this week as part of a Parliamentary Outreach Programme aimed at connecting New Zealanders throughout the country with Parliament and its processes, and they left feeling energised if not slightly triggered by their exchanges with school kids.
A Parliamentary Outreach delegation visits Westport South School, 28 November 2022. MPs from left to right: Helen White, Greg O'Connor, Adrian Rurawhe, Maureen Pugh, Jan Logie. Photo: Johnny Blades / VNP
The delegation, which took in visits to two primary schools and a polytech, was led by Parliament’s Speaker Adrian Rurawhe and also included Maureen Pugh of the National Party, Jan Logie of the Greens, plus Labour MPs Helen White and Greg O’Connor.
At each of the two schools, St Canice’s and Westport South, students aged around 11 and 12 took part in a role-play debate with the MPs which Rurawhe presided over. To create the scene, a rollout screen displaying Parliament’s Debating Chamber was set up in the classroom.
At St Canice’s, the motion being debated was whether private whitebait sales should be taxed, while at Westport South they debated whether the requirement for school uniform should be removed. The students offered some compelling arguments and gave succinct speeches which some MPs would do well to emulate rather than waffling on to fill up time.
Westport South primary school student Jack Neighbours holds the mace for the mock parliament debate held 20 November 2022 during the visit by five MPs as part of a Parliament Outreach programme. Photo: Johnny Blades / VNP
To the point
The debates were followed by Q&A sessions in which, as Logie explained, the students “asked us really probing questions that were relevant to the quality of our democracy, just about how we thought about the Parliament, how it affects us as people and how it impacts on our families”.
The MPs laid their souls bare to questions like: Have you lost any friends or people close to you because of what side you’re on in Parliament? To which White noted that it had changed relationships with a lot of her friends.
“A lot of them want to tell you what they think about what you’re doing. And most of the time I don’t want to know. I don’t want my family to tell me what they think. I am making my own decisions about what I think. I want them just to be my family. And I feel like that about my friends. I don’t want to talk about politics with them. I want to talk about anything else,” she said.
The MPs were asked if being a member had affected their marriage, to which O’Connor opened up about how it had been a factor in the breakdown of his.
“There’s a lot of pressure and time spent away from home. A lot of politicians’ marriages do break up,” he admitted.
When asked the simple question of whether they enjoyed being in Parliament, Logie was frank.
“I’m mixed on it, if I’m honest. I love the part of the job where I get to be in the community… but I hate the arguing (in the chamber). It feels to me like there’s a lot of time in Parliament where people are, like, just what you would call bullying.”
Green Party MP Jan Logie and students at Westport South School raise hands seeking to take a call during a mock parliament debate involving five MPs in a Parliament Outreach visit, 20 November 2022. Photo: Johnny Blades / VNP
Asked whether they’d been threatened as an MP, the answer was generally yes. Pugh recounted one example of death threats against her from a keyboard warrior.
“It kind of escalated over a period of a night. So I could tell whoever it was was getting braver and braver. But when they threatened to chop me up into little pieces and make my grandchildren watch, I figured they’d stepped over the line. So I went straight to our security team in Parliament who are really, really good at this stuff, and within 24 hours they knew who they were and they were dealt to. Everybody thinks you’re anonymous on the end of your keyboard. Well you’re not.”
Breaking it down
Some questions put to the MPs went to the heart of how parliamentary politics works, such as: When you go into debates, do you have a fixed mindset or when you listen to the opposite side do you sometimes find yourself agreeing with them? Do you have a choice over what you can debate and how you vote in the chamber?
Craig Adams, a senior teacher of Westport South School, said he was blown away by his students’ questions.
“There was no prompting at all. I think that kids know what they want to know, and they’re happy to ask those questions, and I thought the MPs answered really well,” he said.
The outreach programme is about demystifying Parliament, making it more accessible. In Westport the Q&A sessions probed areas that enabled anyone listening to see politicians as human.
Parliament Speaker Adrian Rurawhe is interviewed by students at Tai Poutini Polytech students during an outreach visit to Westport by five MPs, during which the MPs cooked a BBQ sausage sizzle at the educational institution, 28 November, 2022. Photo: Johnny Blades / VNP
The outreach makes MPs more relatable, and more than one member said this was quite refreshing in the current deeply polarised environment of political debate.
MPs of different political stripes can sit next to each other and talk about their different views without yelling. Perhaps Parliament’s debates could be routinely held in school classrooms.
