15 Mar 2017

Youth parliament to give young Pasifika people political insight

4:57 pm on 15 March 2017

A Christchurch-based group is looking to get young Pasifika engaged in politics by hosting a Pacific Youth Parliament next month.

The winner of the Prime Minister's Pacific Youth award for leadership and innovation Josiah Tualamali'i.

Josiah Tualamali'i Photo: RNZ / Daniela Maoate-Cox

The Pacific Youth Leadership and Transformation Council (PYLAT) is inviting people to apply to take part in the simulation.

They will be trained up to act as MPs and lobbyists over three days in April.

The group's chair Josiah Tualamali'i said the aim was to give young Pasifika insight into how decisions are made in New Zealand.

He said they also needed to know who to turn to when they want something to happen or have ideas to feed into decision making.

Mr Tualamali'i said the event held particular importance in an election year.

"That's definitely one of our considerations. We want our young people we work with to be speaking into the policies that our parties bring out. The Pacific doesn't need to be invisible in this election."

Applications close on Friday March 24. Click here for more information.