Topics that were discussed

The Adult Rights and Responsibilities (Age of Majority) Bill 2010

The Adult Rights and Responsibilities (Age of Majority) Bill 2010 proposes three important measures to begin to address the confusing and often conflicting age thresholds in current legislation and policy. The Bill will:

• move the default age of attaining adulthood (the age of majority) from 20 to 18 years old.
• remove the current ability for under 16 year olds to be discriminated against on the basis of age in certain circumstances (within the Human Rights Act 1993).
• set up a process for biennial Ministerial review of age of majority-related issues by the Ministers of Justice and Youth Affairs.

This Bill was passed by Youth MPs.

Youth Parliament 2010 select committees

During Youth Parliament 2010, all Youth MPs sat on a select committee and considered one of ten select committees topics. Final reports, which include recommendations from each committee are below.

Select Committee	Topic selected
Education and Science	Inquiry into whether entrepreneurship education should be a compulsory subject in secondary school
Commerce	Inquiry into whether copyright infringement is hurting New Zealand music; how can artists use new media to get their music sold rather than stolen
Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade	Inquiry into whether New Zealand should be supporting the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals – Report of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee
Social Services	Inquiry into how to support young people to be safe with alcohol (alcohol has a massive impact for young people)
Health	Inquiry into what should be done to create a smoke-free generation of young New Zealanders by 2020
Justice and Electoral	Inquiry to determine the process for deciding whether to retain or change the New Zealand flag
Maori Affairs	Inquiry into how we can better tap into the talent of “mozzies” (Māori young people living in Australia)
Transport and Industrial Relations	Inquiry into how we can attract and utilise the skills of young Kiwis returning from their overseas experience
Local Government and Environment	Inquiry into maximising New Zealand’s economic benefits and our green credentials for the Rugby World Cup in 2011
Primary Production	Inquiry into the financial performance and current operations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and a review of factory farming versus free-range farming

Public submissions

Public submissions were open for each of the select committee topics.

Background papers

The Ministry of Youth Development wrote background papers for each of the select committee topics. These papers provided the Youth MPs with a broad overview of the topic.