The Hastings District Council has decided to give unelected youth reps voting rights on Council committees, and they will also pay them. The Council voted 7 – 7 on the proposal,  the casting vote went to Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst and she supported the move.  

Decision-making powers are generally reserved for elected councillors, however, there are cases where unelected Council officials or iwi representatives can hold membership and vote on certain committees where they have the relevant knowledge or expertise. So kind of like a consultant coming on board and giving the benefit of their knowledge and experience. The Hastings Youth Council is made up of 17 youth, aged between 15 and 21. They are appointed following an application process and the vast majority of them are high school students.  

Following yesterday's decision, their involvement will be substantially upgraded and will include payment, and their expanded role will be in place until at least the next council election, which is in October 2025. Councillors who voted against the move say it's undemocratic and it's a backdoor method for getting on the Council rather than going through the actual hard work of putting up your hand, standing, campaigning and being voted in. However, Youth Council Chair Chris Proctor, who spoke to Heather du Plessis-Allan last night, says young people's voices need to be heard:   

“We want to bring a voice to the council table, and we want to make sure that in areas like Flaxmere and Hastings there is almost 50% of population under the age of 25. And we feel that it's important, we have really, really low voter turnout in the under 25 category and that's the issue that we set out to solve. And if we can get someone on the council committee and a young person sees them on there and they see they have input and altogether this is going to have a such a small impact.” 

So that was Chris Proctor, who is actually a student at Lindisfarne College as well as the Hastings Youth Council Chair. Sandra Hazlehurst said she'd been inspired by the Youth Council's intelligence, vision, and positivity, and the change will make a huge contribution. 

I've sat through council meetings. In my time as a reporter around the country I was sent along to different City Council meetings —Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua— they are mind numbingly dull. At the time, and it was some time ago but I don't think much has changed, there were brilliant councillors who read the notes, consulted widely with ratepayers, thought deeply about the issues upon which they were voting, and others simply turned up for the sarnies and the cups of tea. Had no real clue what was going on. Didn't care particularly, it was just something you did when you had a bit of a name for yourself in the region.  

I don't think that just because you're 15 to 21 years old, you are going to be a bad councillor and if Sandra Hazelhurst has seen what these young people can do, has seen that they take it all terribly seriously, that they read the notes, that they read the briefings for the meetings, that they debate thoughtfully, then I can understand why she felt, I suppose, like promoting them from just talking theoretically to being able to have actual voting rights.  

And Chris Proctors' reasons for wanting to apply to be on the councils are genuine. They want to help solve a long-standing issue of disengagement and low voter turnout. Well, good luck getting anybody to turn out to vote in any by elections and elections. It's an appallingly low turnout and I would venture to suggest that a lot of people who are very much against this move to appoint youth councillors to voting rights, haven't voted themselves.  

I think that young people do need to have their voices heard. Ultimately, they will be the ones who will carry the can for any decisions that are made by people much older. The same is true on a nationwide level as well. A lot of the decisions being made by MPs are decisions that the young children of today will feel. It'll be the kids today who will be having to carry the burden of decisions made now. So great that young people have their voices heard. A lot of young people are disengaged because they think, well, what does it matter? Nobody listens to us anyway.  I think the idea of attending youth Council meetings, participating in your region, showing that you care about your region, showing that you understand the responsibility of being on a Council, which these young people have done, means that those who work alongside them think they deserve to have their voices heard. Certainly being on a youth council is more meaningful than taking a day off school and standing in the streets in your Temu clothing and your fast fashion clothing, which is doing more to damage to the climate than anything else. How many of those kids protest and could make a real intangible difference by not buying all that crap that's being made in some cases by forced labour? That would have more meaningful impact than standing in the streets and taking a day off.  

Let's see how they go. It's for a year - October 2025. Let's see if they can get young people turning out to vote. Let's see if they can get young people engaged in the process. Let's see if it means young people will stand for council and go in the front door rather than the back door. Let's give it a go.