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Youth parliament > Press gallery > General Debate and Question Time by Sarah Harvey
General Debate and Question Time by Sarah Harvey
Robust debate, yawning, notes being passed, whispering behind hands and points of order for rambunctious MPs – the first day in the chamber for Youth Parliament 2007 had all the qualities of an ordinary day in the house.
 By Sarah Harvey
The 121 Youth MPs slotted into the seat of the MP who had chosen them,
high school pupils aged between 14 and 18, to represent them for three
days.
Question time allowed the young parliamentarians to question their elder counterparts on topics that were important to them.
The general debate that followed saw a selection of youth MPs give three minute speeches on a topic of their choice.
A particularly controversial speech by Ed Brownlee, the replacement for
National’s Jonathan Coleman slammed the government for not launching a
war on terrorism.
“ Phil Goff slithered off to Palestine to fondle terrorists,’’ he said regarding the minister’s trips to the Middle East.
An ovation from the rest of the house was quickly followed by two
points of order from other youth MPs who objected to Ed’s abuse of Mr
Goff.
He was allowed to get away with some “interesting” word choices by the speaker of the house.
Other topics raised included the negative image of youth as portrayed by the media and our binge drinking culture.
Alicia Gainsford, taking over from Jim Anderton, told how an average
New Zealander over the age of 16 drinks 1.19 litres of alcohol a year.
Equivalent to 689 bottles of beer. The social system was straining
under the weight of the country’s alcohol problems, she said.
A particularly brave MP tackled the problem of teen pregnancy while
others stuck to more mundane topics such as capital gains tax.
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