Congo's Will Scobie and South Durras’s Maddy Tilyou have been given a chance to provide young voices to the running of NSW after being picked to join the YMCA NSW Youth Parliament program.
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Will, 17, and Maddy, 16, will join with 150 young people from across NSW to represent their local communities and develop legislation that they will debate in NSW Parliament House.
Will is a Moruya High School student and Maddy a Batemans Bay High School student.
They will join committees in different portfolios, including roads and ports, indigenous health, justice and law reform and they will research and create a bill to address an issue they are passionate about.
The youth parliamentarians will follow the same processes as their adult counterparts and participate in question time, matters of public importance and private members’ business.
They will participate in residential and training camps, where they get to meet all the youth MPs for 2014 and receive training on how to write their bills.
The bills will be presented to MPs and ministers in parliament in July.
“I was just looking around for things that I could get involved in so I could advocate for youth issues and have a direct impact on policy decisions within NSW,” Will said.
“I came across Youth Parliament and so then emailed member for Bega MP Andrew Constance asking him to nominate me for the program. Luckily I was early and I was accepted immediately. I am very grateful to Mr Constance and his office in Bega for granting me this opportunity.
“I am really excited about being able to represent the young people of Bega and advocate for issues of importance to us.
“I am on the committee for health so I am hoping to focus on issues in regards to mental health, sexual health, obesity, Medicare, drug and alcohol abuse and much more.”
Maddy is “super excited” about the parliament after making a successful online application.
Originally from Arizona in the US, she has been in South Durras for a year and is excited about finding out more about the Australian system of government.
“I’m on the environment and heritage committee and I am looking forward to meeting people who share my passions,” she said.
“The environment is a lifelong interest of mine and I’ve been especially passionate about it since I was in the eighth grade, and now that I am living by the coast even more so.”
She believes the time to act on climate change is now, and has said as much in a speech in front of her whole school.
She is also part of the school’s “green team”, which gets decked out in green superhero outfits and raises money for green-friendly equipment such as recycling bins.
