Youth MPs in their own words: A photo essay

Parliament was recently taken over by the Youth Parliament, a triennial event where 120 Youth MPs stand-in for their older counterparts and hold select committee hearings, question (the actual) ministers, and debate in the chamber. 

You may think Youth MPs, the Youth Press Gallery and Youth Clerk were there to ‘learn the ropes’, but some already outperform their counterparts.

Many brought harsh experience to their perspectives on the issues. They spoke forcefully and with passion on racism, poverty, employment mistreatment, adversity, trauma, mental health, hate speech, gay rights and so on.

They were easily the most diverse group to ever grace the debating chamber.

Below is a scant sample of what they had to say (with pictures).

• You can watch all of the speeches from YP 2022 on the Youth Parliament's Youtube channel. 
• You can read them in the Hansard reports of the event.

Rihari Campbell-Collier —  for Elizabeth Kerekere

"I’m proud to be takatāpui. What a boring, straight old world this would be. When I walk outside, I want to live. I want to work. I want to pose!

"But no, the struggle is real. I work a minimum wage job. Baby, life is not getting cheaper. I’d rather go home and work on my creative projects as an Eastern Institute of Technology student. But the pressure to work and the cost of living is crazy, and it has impacted me and many Māori and Pasifika in this country for generations."

Humairaa Saheb — for Aupito William Sio

"I come from South Auckland. I come representing my religion, wearing my hijab, which I am attacked for. On 9 February, there was an Islamophobic attack at Otago Girls’ High School where a student was beaten up and her hijab was ripped off. By trying to make her take off her hijab, they’re trying to make us fit into the standards that society has for us, taking away our identity, and taking away our rights.

"Our youth are constantly suffering. We are being divided because of our differences, and our schools are not doing enough to conquer the racism. According to the New Zealand Herald, 25 percent of Asian students are treated unfairly because of their ethnicity. Fifteen percent of Māori students and 12 percent of Pasifika students said that teachers treat them unfairly because of their ethnicity.

"Where is the justice in this? Why must the youth have to struggle with their identity and be ashamed of where they come from?"

Cate Tipler — for Golriz Ghahraman

"The only thing not real about Youth Parliament is that many of us will not have the right to vote in this year’s local election or even next year’s general election. We’re part of tens of thousands of young people who are told we are not smart enough or informed enough to vote. But thousands of us marched in the school strikes. Thousands of us signed the petition to ban conversion therapy.

"In South Auckland, young people organised a protest against inter-school violence. Many young people signed a petition calling for consent law reform. And although there are 120 Youth MPs standing here today, there are hundreds more who applied.

"So if there are people who think rangatahi are not politically engaged, then they are not paying attention. That is why I am calling on Parliament to lower the voting age. Youth Parliament is proof that the decisions being made by politicians today will impact young people the most."

Jamal Howell — for  Ibrahim Omer

“I would like to share a story with you of a friend of mine that has personally affected me. Many people would consider him a troublemaker, and for the longest time, I struggled to understand him, but one day he told me his story. As a child in his home country, he was taken from his family and forced to fight in a war. The things he witnessed left me absolutely shocked. I would never have imagined that he had been through something so horrific at such a young age.

"It completely shifted my perspective of him as a person. When I sought his permission to share the story, he requested that I also share this message: never judge another person because you don’t know where they’ve come from or how hurt they’ve got to get to this point; the only thing you can know for sure is to be grateful for what you have.

"I acknowledge the positive changes that have come since that tragic day [the mosque attacks]: changes to firearm laws and the royal commission recommendations starting to unfold. I believe it is possible for New Zealand to lead the way when it comes to diversity and inclusion. If there’s one thing that you take for my message today, let it be this: as one person, you cannot change the world, but you can change the world of one person. To truly embody aroha in our everyday actions, it takes courage. It requires every one of us to take a breath and look inward, to examine our own prejudices and biases, and how we choose to transcend them."

Keelan Heesterman — for Anna Lorck

(Speaking in the debate around a mock-bill aimed at scrapping the youth starting-out wage)

"Young people are doing it tough. As we’ve heard from many people today, some are having to support their families or pay for university. So let’s pay them a fair wage. Let’s let them keep more of what they earn, and let’s scrap the starting out wage."

Daisy Tumataroa — for Ian McKelvie

“Some of us do not receive financial support from our whānau, while others are working to provide for their whānau—many are actually trying to make it out in the big wide world of independence. However, we are all vulnerable. We are at the beginnings of our careers, full of enthusiasm to be entering the workforce, and, instead of being looked after, we are being taken advantage of.

"No justice can be found in telling us that our work is worth less than somebody else doing the exact same job who is simply a couple of years older. I ask: how are we any different from 20 year olds? We are paid less — that is the difference. Cheap labour is not the solution to this problem.”

Ayolabi Martins — for Vanushi Walters

"Additionally, [I] would also like to remind the House of the derogatory and inhumane treatment of disabled workers. These people can, strangely, receive less than the minimum wage and even far less than the starting-out wage, despite the government’s announcement three years ago that the policy would be abolished. My friends, might I remind you today that it has not been abolished.

"Now, of course, many individuals like myself may have less physical capability to perform regular tasks in certain workplaces, but this does not mean the government should still turn a blind eye to the issues over many already marginalised within New Zealand’s society. Rather, the government ought to fund initiatives and potential internship programmes where the disabled community of this country are valued, paid real wages, and not 89c an hour."

Layba Zubair — for Trevor Mallard

"You just dismiss our ideas, invalidate our trauma, silence our voices, and yet you expect us to be responsible to create a safer country. I stand here today ready to fight for what I believe in. I stand here today to demand reformation of our consent laws. It is integral that we have clear and affirmative consent laws to keep our youth safe. You owe us that.

"Reformation of these laws will allow us as a country to take a step forward towards creating a safer Aotearoa and to contribute towards creating a system that supports survivors of rape and assault. I am sick and I am tired of waiting for the adults to grow up and to change the system and support us, and so I decided that I will do it myself — and mark my words when I say that I will. And if I stand here today, I stand here to testify that I refuse to label myself as a victim of sexual assault: I am a survivor."

Rhiannon Mackie — for Ginny Andersen

"Young people make up over 40 percent of this world’s population and we will experience the impacts of policy decisions around the environment for the rest of our lives. Why should our voices not be heard?

"We must prioritise youth voices when we are consulting on any and all policy, and adapt our methods of engagement to ensure that this is the case. Not only this but we must fund our young people, allowing them to self-mobilise and to build their capacity to engage with our environment. This is a critical investment in the future of our society. We must have designated, targeted funding directed specifically towards supporting youth to engage with youth-led environmental initiatives."

Trinity Kapeli — for David Parker

"I have witnessed countless peers leave school reluctantly to aid their families' financial struggles, abandoning their education, aspirations, and youth. Those who decide to attend school whilst working find it very difficult to manage the limited time they have been given to complete studies and attend work at the same time. I know this because I am one of those people, working 40 hours a week during the night, coming home around 6.30am, and getting a one-hour nap before getting ready to go to school at 8.30.

"It is difficult to try to muster the energy to stay focused in school. This is not an uncommon story. Many of my peers are in the same situation. Students really come back to school and often doze off in the middle of class due to the lack of rest from working all night. The fact that it is common in my community is not acceptable."

Epeli Ole — for Carmel Sepuloni

"Finally, times are tough for whānau right now. Cost of living is high. Many young people do contribute to the household costs — I am one of those young people; I contribute to some of the household costs. I pay for some of the costs that will take some pressure off my parents. I am also able to help out with some other broader family costs. If young people were denied a starting out wage on the minimum wage, then there are wider impacts for our families and our overall household budgets."

Hamish Ross — for Chris Bishop

"We as a nation are growing numb to the rates in which our system is letting down New Zealanders. We all know that the youth suicide numbers are disproportionately high, but, at this point, the conversation is no longer about the numbers on a piece of paper. We don’t see the numbers. We see our friends. We see our siblings. We see our classmates. We see an empty pair of shoes that have been let down.

"This current government has brought specific focus to mental health in recent budgets, and although this funding should be celebrated, it is not used where it would be most effective. To put it bluntly, us youth don’t have faith in the system anymore. We are encapsulated by horror stories of how our system deals with mental distress. When we are being told to have a cup of tea and an early night after reaching out to a suicide hotline, we aren’t going to reach out again."

Armani Capone Heremaia Kuri — for Teanau Tuiono

(As chair, reporting back to the House the findings of the Youth Māori Affairs Select Committee)

"We agreed with submitters that climate issues for Aotearoa New Zealand are shared across the Pacific, and require a whole-of-Pacific response. Pacific peoples are experiencing more immediate need to fight for their homes, just like Māori. We discussed the risk of Māori and tauiwi remaining isolated in their respective approaches to climate change, and that a collaboration between government and hapū, iwi, and whānau must go beyond one-off consultation.

"Consultation should be ongoing and bi-directional, with both Māori and Pākēha groups and tauiwi — all of us. We believe that it is not just for us. Māori views support all tangata. Whether you are here in Aotearoa or you are through the Pacific, Māori views and indigenous people are fighting for all of us, not just us."

Aidan Donoghue — Gaurav Sharma

"If we have any hope of breaking the generational cycle of poverty and abuse that grips this country by the throat, we need expansion. We must act now and we must act quickly. We need intervention methods such as the Integrated Safety Response programme beyond the Waikato and Canterbury. We need more beds for addiction treatment across the country.

"We need a better option than renting out expensive, unsafe motels to house whānau if we have any hopes of letting them move on. But most crucial of all, we need to focus on what the victims need. They need our support, they need normality, and they need an opportunity for a second chance at life."

Yoonie Park — for Melissa Lee

"In fact, a survey done by Asian Family Services last year found that 98.7 percent of Asians believe that the public holds negative stereotypes against people with mental illnesses, which suggests why the numbers of Asian people engaging in mainstream health services in New Zealand for help are so low.

"However, unlike other ethnicities, there is no specific mental health strategy to address the rising mental health and suicides in our Asian community in New Zealand. We need more culturally appropriate and accessible Asian mental health services supported by the government in order to close up the generational gap within families. We need more clinicians who are more culturally and linguistically capable, able to understand the specific cultural complexities that only Asian immigrant households have.

"The mental health of minorities should not be overlooked nor underestimated. Our elders, youth, and children all deserve to be cared for in Aotearoa, the place that they might’ve not been born to call home, but the place they surely chose to call home."

Sarah-Joy Aruwa — for Jenny Salesa

"So how do we combat racism? It is a cycle that is passed on through its teaching of casual racism and microaggressions, issues that are heavily undermined. I believe it is crucial that we improve the education of racial issues in Aotearoa. Many of us still don’t understand the racial injustices that have occurred in our own country. When asked in a survey, 67 percent of high school students said that they had not been taught about the dawn raids. And when asked about the Treaty of Waitangi, 75 percent of students said that they believed it had been taught in a biased way that did not uncover its full truth.

"The lack of accurate teaching surrounding racial issues in New Zealand is shown in our older generations too. As the government proposed tougher hate speech laws — in which a person who intentionally stirs up, maintains, and normalises hatred could be fined up to $50,000 or sentenced to up to three years in prison — the leader of the ACT Party publicly opposed this law, stating he has a right to free speech. He explicitly said the law would 'shut down debate and make people too afraid to express valid opinions'.

"If a member of Parliament believes discriminating against someone on the basis of their race, gender, sexuality, or religious beliefs is free speech and valid opinion, should we not be concerned that someone with power and influence has such an ignorant way of thinking? We need to improve the education of racial issues in Aotearoa if we want our Māori, Pasifika, and ethnic communities to feel safe, equal, and heard. Getting people to understand the various effects of casual racism, systematic racism, and stereotypes will help instigate a change in attitudes in New Zealand surrounding racism."

Grace Pickering — for Naisi Chen

"In te ao Māori, our hauora is depicted by the same wharenui I slept in when I lost a family member to suicide — a whare full of whakapapa, history, and tikanga, modelling Te Whare Tapawhā. Twenty percent of our rangatahi in Aotearoa are distressed, with a mental health issue. Look around, koutou. In this room full of change, 35 of us have experienced a breakdown of one of the four Te Whare Tapawhā walls. Us as youth are calling out for systematic change.

"According to the New Zealand Medical Journal, the number of psychologists in ratio to those who would benefit from their treatment is one to 312. From building whanaungatanga to multiple consultant sessions, realistically a psychologist only sees 80 patients a year. This estimate leaves 500,000 of our rangatahi with mental health issues unable to access treatment. Our lower-income communities that have a higher prevalence of mental health issues are the same communities that cannot afford to go to therapy, where consultants are too far away from their whare, and they are ultimately a part of that 500,000."

---

And a few pictures without quotes...

Youth Parliament 2022 opened with the same ceremony you would expect of the full version, including the presence of the governor-general, the New Zealand Herald of Arms Extraordinary to the Queen, and Black Rod. Followed of course by a cuppa.

---

RNZ’s The House - parliamentary legislation, issues and insights - is made with funding from Parliament.