Youth MP concerned about creating safer communities for women

By Emma Westenra, Youth Press Gallery, Youth Parliament 2025

Photo Caption: Grace Foster, Youth MP

Foster attends Birkenhead College on the North Shore of Auckland.

She is passionate about the issues that affect her community, in particular the safety of young women.

Youth Parliament is her first foray into politics, but she is super excited to be involved.

“I really do believe that youth deserve more of a voice in politics,” Foster says. 

Shanan Halbert selected Foster after she performed a speech on safety in her community.

She wants her community to be safer for women, especially young women who are often targeted.

“When I am talking to a lot of my female friends a lot of them have had quite unsettling encounters with men in our area…Men were asking them to get in their cars or following them,” she added.

Foster believes that everyone deserves to be able to walk down the street without being harassed.

She wants to spread awareness and make young women aware of what their options are when they experience harassment.

“I think it’s important to put more education into place about it... and offer more self-defence courses in schools and colleges.”

Foster has been allocated the Parliamentary Working Group which has a focus on housing and she is looking forward to discussing issues around housing.

The main reason that she chose the housing working group was because of the homelessness in Auckland.

Youth homelessness is “really upsetting”, she says and she’s concerned about access to emergency housing.

Additionally, when Foster surveyed her peers on issues they were concerned about, mental health was the top issue.

“A lot of students felt that mental health support was inadequate… the wait times for councillors and school councillors aren’t always the best.”

And when it came to whether young people thought that youth voices were being heard in politics, “the overwhelming majority said no”.