A group of young people nationwide have the chance to represent their communities as youth members of Parliament.
The chosen participants will soon travel to Wellington to learn the workings of democracy before taking part in Youth Parliament on July 1 and 2.
Four Dunedin youths will join 119 peers from around the country to form this year’s Youth Members of Parliament, alongside 20 Youth Press Gallery members.
Each Youth MP is paired with a local representative: Angus Noone with Mark Patterson, Zenah Taha with Ingrid Leary, Phoebe Ashdown with Rachel Brooking and Jomana Moharram with Francisco Hernandez.
Phoebe Ashdown, a year 12 student at Otago Girls’ High School, is excited to take part in the non-partisan process.
‘‘I do debate and Amnesty [International] and I am involved with all that sort of stuff, so I just jumped at the opportunity.’’
One key issue for her is access to mental health support.
‘‘When it comes to mental health, a lot of it starts with stigma and not making it normalised in our society that youth can get mental health treatment.’’
Accessibility and cost were two obstacles to securing psychological care.
‘‘I think it is very expensive to get therapy.’’
Availability was another concern.
‘‘Frankly, having just a school counsellor is not cutting it.
‘‘When you look at the numbers, it is not cutting it, there are still people struggling with mental health issues so I think that is clear to me that it is somewhere that I think needs change.’’
Climate change presented another significant challenge, Phoebe said.
Living in the coastal community of Blueskin Bay, she knew first-hand the problems caused by rising sea levels and erosion.
‘‘I have seen that change happening in my own community.’’
She had noticed sea-level changes over the past five years.
‘‘So that is a big thing.’’
Jomana Moharram is a second-year University of Otago student studying law and politics.
She said young people could feel hopelessness and rage when striving for meaningful change.
Reflecting on her generation’s political engagement, she recalled that their first major protest was the school strikes for climate change.
‘‘We all went out and we all protested and we thought ‘the government has a responsibility to hear us, and we are going to go out there and we are going to make our voice heard’.’’
However, that was not really what happened, Jomana said.
‘‘You try to talk to a young person about politics now and a lot of people are receptive, a lot of people want to get involved in politics.’’
The difficulty arose when young people felt the system did not serve them.
‘‘When you have got uni students who for the majority are cold, hungry and just poor, then that is the reality.
‘‘The system is not serving me, I don’t have a stake in the system, I’m not going to engage with it.’’
Jomana warned it becomes dangerous when youth disengage from the very system designed to deliver change.
Both Phoebe and Jomana have been preparing for their journey to Parliament by talking with fellow youth to learn which issues matter most to them.
‘‘For me, it is being the collective voice and not just saying what you want to say,’’ Phoebe said.
‘‘I’m not here to teach. I’m here to listen. I’m here to learn about politics. I’m here to learn about Dunedin’s community and then take it up there and share that.’’
