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Youth parliament > Press gallery > Profile on Diana Mockford by Sarah Harvey
Profile on Diana Mockford by Sarah Harvey
Taieri College’s Diana Mockford is living the life of National MP Katherine Rich - and loving it.
 By Sarah Harvey
The 17-year-old admits she was daunted by the prospect of taking the
hot seat as a Youth MP in the 2007 Youth Parliament in Wellington, but
with two days down the buzz was just starting to hit yesterday.
“I love every minute here. I would recommend this to anyone,’’ she said yesterday after a caucus meeting with fellow youth MPs.
Ms Rich had not passed on any parliamentary secrets, and nor was Diana
allowed access to parliament’s pool, gym facilities and movie theatre,
but being confident in her views had held her in good stead so far, she
said.
Diana, in her final year at the college, admits that being an MP was
not high on her list of dream jobs before she came to parliament but
the buzz of being in the middle of decision making was addictive.
Teacher’s college was on the immediate horizon, but in the future being
able to represent her community as an MP would be great, she said.
Issues that concerned Diana included drug and alcohol abuse and youth wages.
She could not understand why young people should get paid less for
doing the same work as adults and if she had the chance she would push
for legislation to change this, she said.
In the debating chamber on Monday she found the other Youth MPs had
‘’very very confident’’ views on all sorts of areas, including issues
she had never considered as being important.
Even just being at parliament and learning about the systems and the
way things worked in the building would help in everyday life.
“No matter what we are doing there is always going to be politics. To get to know what is going on, is great.”
Diana Mockford
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