Youth Parliament (YP): A program the Y runs for young people to create and debate their legislation in their respective state parliament houses.
This admittedly sounds a bit boring to some when I attempt to summarise, but having had the opportunity to attend I could not recommend it enough to other young people.
I would like to consider myself a politically savvy young person… I know it’s not up to me to judge, but I would say that I have been aware of the impacts of youth voice on legislation for a while. I mean I'm literally doing a politics degree! And yet my first time in YP truly allowed me to identify my own bias and gaps in my knowledge.
Whilst in university I’m stuck analysing pre-existing legislation and the legislative process from afar. YP allowed me to be directly involved in the process and problems of policy writing. I was assigned to the Crime, Justice and Corrections Committee which ultimately decided to tackle the enforcement of family court orders in our legislation.
I personally had no lived experience of the family court system nor had I studied it to a great depth, however listening to and learning from those on my committee with that experience was truly eye-opening and, combined with further research, informed my views on those particular issues to this day.
This opportunity to listen to other diverse young people is the core of the YP program. When you get 100 or so young people debating in a room together from all walks of life: age groups, faith backgrounds, heritages, socioeconomic statuses, and living locations whether in metropolitan areas or the regions, you are practically guaranteed to listen to a perspective, problem or solution that you weren't aware of in the legislative process.
I found that those who listened actively to others both in and out of the chamber visibly benefited from this program the most. I can personally attest to this as much of my debate style morphed throughout the week based on conversations with others from diverse backgrounds. Overall I consider myself a more respectful open person because of YP which shone a glaring light on my inherent biases that I now consider in my day-to-day life.
Opportunities to listen to other young people at this scale are so few and far between, most youth advisory councils only consist of 10-15 members! And whilst consultation with broader groups of young people exists, it is still smaller scale, often repetitive and ultimately those outside perspectives are still limited to ‘the room where it happens’. YP is a strong step in allowing young people to contribute practical solutions to issues beyond our individual lived experiences on a larger scale.
With the Western world becoming increasingly partisan, YP in its non-partisan status allowed a refocus of my political understanding towards the solutions, the policies themselves rather than the people on either side proposing them. Even when in heated debate with other young people that I didn’t agree with, in subsequent debriefs I realised that our intentions were the same, to solve problems and make our society better with the best legislation we can propose.
As young people, we desperately need the ability to appreciate the merits of policy solutions proposed in our country. With issues such as the climate crisis and the inflated cost of living in our near future, the policies made now are the ones that will affect us the most in future. Civics education programs such as YP that directly involve young people are so important both for our understanding of current solutions and our ability to propose new ones informed by diversity and numerous perspectives. Practical introductory programs such as YP lay the foundations for the next generation of young scholars, professionals, leaders and advocates.
To summarise:
Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Give a young person a problem and they will be passionate about it for a period, teach a young person how to make viable legislative solutions and they can make change for a lifetime.
By Chelsea
This post was written and published as part of YACSA sponsorship for the 2024 YMCA SA Youth Parliament program.
