7TH COMMONWEALTH YOUTH PARLIAMENT
hearings was very beneficial in providing real life witness examination experience for the scrutiny committee process relating to a Bill for debate. During the afternoon of day two, both the youth government and youth opposition debated motions and a former Speaker of the Legislative Assembly took the Chair to provide guidance during these sessions. The Speaker from 2005 to 2012, Hon. Jane Aagaard gave the youth parliamentarians the benefit of her experience and yet another perspective for youth parliamentarians to interact with an experienced former parliamentarian. One of the great experiences of a Youth Parliament is the nuance and discovery that comes with each new jurisdiction hosting the event. The participation of mentors and advisers such as a former Northern Territory Assembly Speaker, serving Members of the Northern Territory Assembly, the Clerk and senior officers of the Assembly and our team of valued mentors meant we had a rich variety of divergent experience coming from the same Westminster foundations. Mr Gavin Shuker MP from the House of Commons; Mr Drew Smith MSP from the Parliament of Scotland; Hon Akierra Missick, Deputy Premier of Turks and Caicos; Mr Gareth Ward MP from the New South Wales Legislative Assembly; Hon. Don Harwin MLA, President of the New South Wales Legislative Council;
Ms Rebecca White MP from the Tasmanian House of Assembly; Ms Lauren Moss MLA, a Member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly; and Ms Susan Sourial, Committee Clerk of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia were all in attendance working hard day and night. They collaborated with and guided the youth parliamentarians and coached them on procedure and tactical matters over the life of CYP7 and their efforts were much appreciated by all. Their invaluable contributions brought to the experience a range of differing backgrounds leading to lots of healthy and engaging debate and questioning for many participants about how and why things within Westminster settings are done in similar, but also in different ways. Many of the youth parliamentarians also brought divergent local experiences from their home jurisdictions and enthusiastically compared, questioned and considered the procedures at play as we used the then existing Northern Territory Assembly Standing Orders as the basis for our CYP7 procedure. This enthusiasm lead to some amusing moments where Youth Parliamentarians cited infrequently used Standing Orders which were not upheld by the Chair by virtue of local practice and convention where these have been liberally interpreted and read down over
54 | The Parliamentarian | 2016: Issue One
many years. This was another valuable experience where learning how convention and day to day practice and procedures develop and influence the way that parliament works in each jurisdiction came to the fore. The second evening of events included an official welcome function at Government House overlooking Darwin Harbour where the Youth Chief Minister thanked His Honour the Administrator of the Northern Territory on behalf of the youth parliamentarians for his hospitality. Day Three - A Change of Government By day three the youth parliamentarians were ready to debate the Charter of Human Rights Bill, but before that occurred, a majority of the youth parliamentarians sought an unscheduled special morning sitting to consider a motion of no confidence in the government. I started out above saying that there were many ‘firsts’ at CYP7, and apart from being in touch with local crocodiles, another first was that a CYP government was defeated on the floor of the House. As the result of the prior self-nominating process, the Conservatives had the most members of a single party but were in minority government with independent members holding the balance of power. It was reported that overnight on Tuesday evening some old fashioned political horse-trading took place amongst some of the youth parliamentarians and in the spirit of political manoeuvring inherent in Westminster style parliaments, particularly in Australia in recent years, the dynamic on Wednesday morning had changed. The Northern Territory Assembly’s Clerk assumed the Chair as Acting Speaker and
presided over a sometimes emotional debate which resulted in the defeat of the Conservative Government on a motion of no confidence and the formation of a new government. The result lead to a walkout by the now new opposition members. In the normal course of events, the Assembly in the Northern Territory would be in hiatus in a ‘no confidence period’ where either party or any grouping could seek to form a government on the floor for a period of eight days before the Administrator would consider the option of calling an election, however given the nature of the timeframe for CYP7, it was accepted that the numbers had changed and the government had as well. My Clerk and his officers have received some interesting feedback concerning this aspect of the proceedings with some delegates expressing disappointment that ‘politics’ got in the way of being parliamentarians. I take the view however, that this display of tactics are a part of the learning experience of being a parliamentarian and that disappointment is inherent to parliamentary practice. The Westminster experience is characterised by members acting in a political manner and in fact, this was a very valuable experience for the CYP7 participants all round. The Clerk briefed me on these matters before the afternoon when it was my turn to assume the Chair as Speaker of the Youth Parliament. I was a little fearful that the morning’s acrimony and disappointment might manifest itself in the afternoon proceedings but to the credit of all youth parliamentarians they proceeded with a mature and intelligent debate and I was delighted at the level of order and good procedural practice I witnessed