College Student Leads the Way as Youth Ambassador

Over the July school holidays, our Year 13 student Alexi Carlier represented his Tamaki electorate at the 2013 Youth Parliament in Wellington, and also attended the UNICEF NZ Youth Congress in Auckland.

For the seventh Youth Parliament sitting held on 16-17 July in Wellington, Alexi was one of 121 selected Youth MPs who explored current youth issues in Select Committees and debated topics during Question Time. The centrepiece of the event was the Mock Bill on electoral reform, which proposes to lower the legal voting age to 17, introduce electronic voting and make voting compulsory.

Alexi was also one of ten Youth MPs elected as Head of a Select Committee where he was in charge of finalising the Primary Production report and reporting back to the House of Representatives, as well as taking part in the General Debate where the Youth MPs were allocated various activities.

One of the highlights of his parliamentary experience was a tour of John Key’s office and the Executive wing with his Member of Parliament Simon O'Connor, something few other Youth MPs had the chance to experience.

He will hold his title of Youth MP for Tamaki until 31 December 2013. During this time, he will have the opportunity to work alongside Mr O’Connor and understand more of the work of a local member of parliament.

Additionally Alexi was selected as one of 45 young people (16-23 years) from around the country to participate in the UNICEF NZ Youth Congress which was held in Auckland from 12-14 July.

It was the second time UNICEF NZ has held the Youth Congress for young New Zealanders, which provides young people with the chance to learn more about the world including children’s rights and issues, as well as having the opportunity to share ideas and learn skills needed to take action.

At the end of the Congress Alexi was awarded as the person who made the 'most useful contributions to the event.’ He was also selected out of the 45 attendees to be interviewed by the New Zealand Correspondent to the BBC Greg Ward on the importance of Education as a Human Right.

This year the event had a specific focus on nutrition, poverty in NZ and around the world, and developmental issues in the Pacific.