Youth parliament > Press gallery > Youth MPs in lively debate by John Hartevelt

Youth MPs in lively debate by John Hartevelt

Heated tempers, unsavoury language and even the tuneful strains of a harmonica filled Parliament's Debating Chamber yesterday as youth MPs held their final session.

By John Hartevelt

In the end, the 121-member Youth Parliament failed to pass a bill designed to mitigate climate change -- but only just.

The vote was locked at 53 in favour and 53 against, with 14 abstentions, meaning the bill did not proceed.

Debate reached such a tenor in the House yesterday that one of the MPs was ejected.

Green MP Katherine Steel, representing Keith Locke, said Youth Parliament was being manipulated by the Government into debating a bill "that looks good but has no real impact".

"We will not be manipulated. Abstain on the bill and tell the Government to stop f ...... with our future," Steel said, before being ejected from the chamber for five minutes.

The MPs were debating the Household Response to Climate Change Bill 2007. It proposed household carbon accounts be set up and tax credits given to people who cut their carbon emissions.

In a surprise move, the Green Party MPs came out against the bill, labelling it a "sham".

Green MP Jaz Morris, representing Sue Kedgley, said the bill would address only 1 per cent of New Zealand's total carbon emissions.

"What it shows you is that the group that put this bill before the Youth Parliament was gutless. It is symptomatic of the reluctance of this Government that we debate today a bill put up by some pencil-pusher in a pathetic attempt to have a semblance of efficacy.

"I would wager the paper spent printing this bill contains a greater carbon sink than the results of the bill."

Another MP, Allanah Manson, took a different tack, claiming the science on climate change was inconclusive.

Sponsored by ACT leader Rodney Hide, Manson said "we can barely trust models that try to predict temperatures in the next three or four days, so why should we trust models that try to predict temperatures 30 or 40 years away".

Another, National Youth MP Anna Lee, said there was "no point in jumping off a bridge to save the world if no-one notices us jumping".

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