Bouncy castle protest against youth council voting rights in Hastings

About 50 to 60 people gathered outside the Hastings District Council building as the Taxpayers Union held a "Bouncy Chamber", complete with bubbles, in protest of the council's decision to give youth council voting rights and to pay them. Photo / Michaela Gower

A “Bouncy Council” was erected by the Taxpayers Union in Hastings today to highlight their protest at young people having voting rights on council committees.

The move was, in the words of the Taxpayers Union, representative of “a temporary Hasting District Chamber to better reflect the behaviour of elected representatives”.

Last week, Hastings District Council (HDC) decided to give unelected youth representatives voting rights on council committees and also to pay them. The council voted 7-7 on the proposal with the casting vote by Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst pushing the move through.

Taxpayers’ Union spokesman, and former Hastings District Youth Councillor, Jordan Williams said across New Zealand people were crying out for adults to get back in charge at councils.

He said he knew “a little bit about being one of the twerps on the youth council because I was one of them”.

”Anyone should be able to attend council and council committee meetings. However, giving those young people the right to vote is something different and that opens up a whole lot of risk.

”Mark my words, what will happen at some point is one of these young people is innocently going to share some information that they shouldn’t which will lead to subjudicial review. I say these are kids, let them be kids.”

Hazlehurst told LDR in a statement that there was “misunderstandings” about the vote and that Youth Council members could only sit on standing committees and subcommittees.

”A Youth Council member therefore will not vote at the highest level,” she said.

The mayor added a decision to pay the youth members had not yet been made and some Youth Council team members had specifically said they did not want money.

Hazlehurst said youth council members could provide a perspective that may not be available from others and were also the cohort that would have to live with decisions for far longer than older people.

The mayor added the decision regarding Youth Council members was only in place for one year.

Councillor Kevin Watkins missed the vote and said that if he had been at the meeting “we wouldn’t be standing here now”.

He had been granted a leave of absence to represent the council at Te Papa in Wellington and said he would have voted against the proposal.

Williams previously said local government was in crisis and instead of the adults prevailing, “Mayor Hazlehurst is inviting kids with, at best, year 10 business studies, to cast votes on governance matters of an organisation with total assets of nearly $3 billion.”

Outside the council building today he added, “we need to keep pressure on the mayor and councillors to reverse this decision” and that he was very confident it would happen.

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 are high school students.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.