Renewed respect as Bay Youth 'MP' gets taste of Parliament

Parliament was looking more youthful earlier this week with the seasoned politicians being replaced by fresh-faced Youth MPs from around the country.

Representing Hawke's Bay and Labour MP Stuart Nash was Napier Boys' High School head prefect Cameron Price, 17, who said his two days in Parliament were "awesome".

Cameron was one of 122 young people who took over Parliament for two days to get a taste of life as a politician.

Youth Parliament is held every three years as a joint initiative of the Minister of Youth Affairs and the Speaker, with Youth MPs aged between 16-18 years old.

"I was a bit worried that it would be a bit token but we really got involved," said Cameron. "I didn't realise how much work goes on behind the scenes, which you never see on TV."

Youth MPs experienced all real life government activities such as speaking in Parliament, being part of select committee hearings, attending caucus meetings and debating a bill.

Cameron spoke for three minutes to a packed house debating a bill on the age of consent.

A group of young journalists, aged in their early 20s and many studying for their journalism qualifications, made up a youth press gallery.

During a special question time, the young ones got to grill ministers on everything from national standards to prison populations.

There were a few heckles and shouts from the floor in an otherwise eerily orderly question time, where 18 questions were asked in less than an hour.

Question 16 from Joshua Harvey got the most reaction when he asked Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee about the economic benefits of mining compared to the effect on the country's clean, green image.

Mr Brownlee suggested to the Youth MPs they give up all products that relied on mining if they were so against it.

"He might like to for example give up his Walkman," he started before being drowned out by laughter.

"Not his Walkman, even I've given up my Walkman, what do they call it, the iPod thing? Get rid of that. It's full of those rare earth elements, very expensive minerals and the other one, of course, would be to get rid of your cellphone."

The half a dozen or so ministers present answered questions across a range of portfolios, which prompted Lisa Nyman-Ambrose to quip that "supplementary question for the Minister of Labour the Honourable Kate Wilkinson, but I will settle for the Honourable Gerry Brownlee".

She was quickly pulled up by Speaker Lockwood Smith - while Opposition MPs were often annoyed when a minister wasn't present to answer, it was up to the Government to decide who would respond.

However, it was not all serious. Youth MPs also got to grill Kiwi director Taika Waititi, young New Zealander of the year Divya Dhar and Youth Affairs Minister Paula Bennett in a comedy panel discussion on the first night, and also got to mix and mingle with MPs.

Seeing the amount of work politicians do and speaking to some of the country's more colourful politicians such as Rodney Hide and Hone Harawira has given Cameron a newfound respect for MPs.

"I saw Hone Harawira there and thought he might yell at me for being a whitey or something but they're all really nice people. I asked a lot of them why they got into politics and they all said they wanted to make change."

Labour MP Mr Nash said he couldn't have been happier with Cameron as a choice to represent him in the House. "I had a call from a Wellington-based MP and he said Cameron's speech was a real stand-out."