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Commitment 2 progress report: June 2018 to January 2019

Open Government Partnership New Zealand National Action Plan 2018-2020

Progress report for: June 2018 – January 2019

Commitment 2 progress report: June 2018 to January 2019

 

Commitment 2: Youth Parliament

Lead agency: Ministry of Youth Development

Objective: To improve understanding among young people of how Parliament works and to highlight topics that matter to young people the Ministry of Youth Development (MYD) will work with the Office of the Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives to deliver an enhanced Youth Parliament 2019.

Ambition: Through delivering the six-month Youth Parliament 2019 programme, MYD aims to fulfil the five Youth Parliament objectives:

  • replicate the Parliamentary process
  • involve as many young people as possible (before and after the event)
  • maximise the educational opportunities of the event
  • enhance Parliamentary public relations
  • make known the views expressed to appropriate policy agencies

To allow young people the opportunity to shape what is discussed at the two-day event the young people selected to be Youth MPs will submit potential topics for Youth Parliament select committee hearings, and potential topics for a mock bill.

OGP values: Public Participation, Technology and Innovation

 

Milestones

Milestone 1

Widely promote the opportunity to submit to the ten planned Youth Parliament select committee hearings ahead of the July 2019 Youth Parliament event to a diverse range of young people.

Start/End dates: April 2019-June2019

Progress: N/A (Scheduled to start in April 2019)

Milestone 2

Explore (with the Ministry of Education) how footage of Youth MPs speaking in the debating chamber of the New Zealand House of Representatives could be utilised as part of a civics or citizenship educational resource for schools.

Start/End dates: October 2018-June 2020

Progress: Underway

Milestone 3

With the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives maximise opportunities to profile Youth Parliament via social media channels, including promoting:

  • the Youth MP and Youth Press Gallery selection period
  • the finalising of the select committee and mock bill topics (planned to be finalised by April 2019)
  • the work of Youth MPs in their communities during their tenure
  • activities occurring during the two-day Youth Parliament event

Start/End dates: October 2018-August 2019

Progress: Underway

Milestone 4

Circulate Youth Parliament select committee reports to policy agencies relevant to the topics discussed and publish them on the MYD website as soon as they are available after the Youth Parliament event.

Start/End dates: July 2019-October 2019

Progress: N/A (Scheduled to start in mid-July 2019)

 

What we have been doing

  • The Youth Parliament 2019 participant selection period was open from 12 August to 19 October 2018. We supported each of New Zealand’s 120 Members of Parliament (MPs) to begin selecting a Youth MP during this time, and 36 young people applied to be a member of the Youth Press Gallery. By 31 December, 118 Youth MPs and 20 Youth Press Gallery had been selected.
  • To enable the public submission process for the ten planned Youth Parliament select committee hearings, we have been supporting Youth MPs and the Youth Parliament 2019 Multi-Party Steering Committee (MPSC - made up of an MP from each political party currently elected to Parliament, and a representative of the Parliamentary Pres Gallery) to select topics to be discussed at the two-day Youth Parliament event in July 2019.
  • Following their 6 November 2018 meeting, the MPSC decided to live broadcast Youth Parliament 2019, which will produce footage of Youth MPs speaking in the debating chamber of the New Zealand House of Representatives, which could be utilised as part of a civics or citizenship educational resource for school.
  • During the selection period we posted and shared via social media channels 12 videos of MPs promoting the opportunity for young people to participate in Youth Parliament 2019, and 10 videos of former participants talking about their experience and encouraging young people to apply. The combined Ministry of Youth Development Youth Parliament selection period social media posts reached over 100,000 people.

How we are including diverse voices

  • We are including a diverse range of voices through our promotion of Youth Parliament 2019. Videos of former participants we posted and shared on social media promoting the opportunity for young people to participate in Youth Parliament 2019 included a former Youth MP who uses New Zealand Sign Language to communicate, a former Youth MP with a Down Syndrome diagnosis, a balance of youth MPs of different genders (five females and five males), and ethnicities.
  • The Office for Disability issues wrote a profile on a former Youth MP with a disability to encourage other young people with disabilities to consider the opportunity to become a 2019 Youth MP.
  • As part of the participant selection process, Youth MPs were invited to submit their ideas for the eleven topics to be discussed at the two-day Youth Parliament event in July 2019. Following consultation with external agencies these ideas will be ranked by the MPSC, and then Youth MPs will select the final ten Youth Parliament select committee topics through a further ranking process. Thefinal mock bill topic will be selected from a ballot, drawn by a politically neutral person.

How we are keeping diverse communities informed

Links to social media videos of former participants promoting the opportunity for young people to participate in Youth Parliament 2019 were circulated to a range of partner government and non-government organisations working with diverse communities, including:

  • Ara Taiohi
  • Electoral Commission
  • Ministry for Pacific Peoples
  • Ministry of Education
  • National Association of Media Educators
  • Office for Disability Issues
  • Office of Ethnic Communities
  • Office of the Children’s Commissioner
  • Office of the Clerk of the New Zealand House of Representatives
  • Te Puni Kokiri.

What's next?

  • The six-month Youth Parliament programme begins on 1 March 2019 and runs through till 31 August 2019. Each of the 140 participants will participate in one of nine initial training sessions delivered across the country between 26 February and 14 March 2019.
  • Topic selection is expected to be completed by April 2019, in time to promote to a diverse range of young people the opportunity to submit to the ten planned Youth Parliament select committee hearings ahead of the July 2019 Youth Parliament event.
  • We will continue to prepare to host the 140 participants at Parliament on 16 and 17 July 2019 for the two-day Youth Parliament event.

Links – Evidence of progress and milestones achieved

 

New Zealand's Plan