YMCA Queensland youth parliament

Youth Members of Parliament have a three-day sitting in the Legislative Assembly Chamber of the Queensland Parliament

The Department of Communities provides funding to YMCA Queensland to support the activities of the YMCA Queensland Youth Parliament.

This is a nine-month youth development program that provides training, mentoring, and support to improve their knowledge of Queensland parliamentary processes and equip them with the skills to be able to influence Government and community decision making. Throughout the program, participants will gather to discuss and debate local and state-wide policy and advocate within a Queensland parliamentary model for change on the issues that matter to young people.

More than 90 young people aged between 15 and 25 from across Queensland are selected for the program. These young people are keen to make a difference and represent their communities through the program. The participants represent the 89 state government electorates in Queensland, with four additional seats available specifically for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander young people.

This year marks the 17th YMCA Queensland Youth Parliament program. The program will be launched in Brisbane on 14 April 2012 with an opening ceremony in Queensland Parliament House and a two-day induction forum.

During induction, the participants will learn about parliamentary process, form working groups and committees to guide their activities through the program and develop Youth Bills that will be debated in Queensland Parliament House later in the year. In their committee’s, they will develop their Bills through communicating online as well as through phone conferences with the support and assistance of their mentor. Participants will then return to their communities and be involved in community engagement projects and finalise the Youth Bills they will debate in Parliament.

The final part of the 2012 program will be a Parliamentary Sitting Program of the Youth Parliament that will be held in the Queensland Legislative Assembly of Parliament House at the end of September 2012. During this program, the participants will return to Brisbane and spend time over a week in Parliament debating the Youth Bills they have developed during the program, presenting adjournment debates focusing on issues specific to the electorates they represent and participating in other parliamentary sessions such as Matters of Public Importance and Questions Without Notice.

Following the Parliamentary Sitting Program of the YMCA Queensland Youth Parliament, the Youth Bills and transcripts of the parliamentary debate are forwarded to relevant Queensland Government Ministers and other key decision makers for their information and consideration.

To learn more about the YMCA Queensland Youth Parliament, see www.ymcaqyp.org or contact the co-ordinator of the program at coordinator@ymcaqyp.org.au.