Catholic youth in Parliament

Several students from Catholic colleges participated in the 2019 Youth Parliament event, held in Wellington in July.

The Youth Parliament is held every three years, providing young people with the opportunity to learn and share information about New Zealand’s
democracy. Youth MPs are selected by current MPs to represent them and take on the role of a Member of Parliament as much as possible. There is also a Youth Press Gallery. The Youth Parliament 2019 programme runs between March 1 and August 31.

According to the Lighting New Fires newsletter from the New Zealand Catholic Education Office, the students from Catholic colleges who participated and their nominating MPs were:- Ben Sokimi – Aquinas College, Tauranga (Simon Bridges – National); Charise Perez – St Mary’s College, Wellington (Grant Robertson – Labour); Chyna West- John – St Catherine’s College, Wellington (Chris Bishop – National); Eperu Sa’u – St Bernard’s College, Lower Hutt (Ginny Anderson – Labour); Freya Young – Marian College, Christchurch (Paulo Garcia – National); Gabriel Tagi – St Peter’s College, Auckland (Agnes Loheni – National); Teresa Rodger – Marian College, Christchurch (Poto Williams – Labour); Jack Buchan – Kavanagh
College, Dunedin (David Clark – Labour).