Whanganui Youth MP Taiko Edwards-Haruru delivers mental health speech in Parliament

Whanganui's Youth MP Taiko Edwards-Haruru (right) at the 2025 Youth Parliament event with Whanganui MP Carl Bates (left) and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.

Whanganui’s 2025 Youth MP Taiko Edwards-Haruru has had a busy few months, with his most recent achievement being attending Youth Parliament.

The Youth MP programme is a triennial event in which every MP selects someone aged 16 to 18, who gets the opportunity to connect with their MP, engage with their community, work on self-initiated projects and attend Youth Parliament.

For 2025, the programme runs from April 28 to August 29.

Edwards-Haruru, a Year 13 student at Whanganui High School, is focused on education, mental health and cultural representation in his work as Youth MP.

So far, he has met the head students of high schools, attended a citizenship ceremony, met Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe and Education Minister Erica Stanford, and attended a Whanganui Federated Farmers event in Fordell with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.

Youth Parliament consists of an orientation day followed by a two-day event at which 80 Youth MPs deliver short debate speeches and 19 put questions to ministers.

On the orientation day, Edwards-Haruru participated in the sports and recreation committee group, visited the National Library and socialised with his fellow youth MPs.

Of the 123 Youth MPs, Edwards-Haruru was one of 80 to deliver a debate speech. He focused on mental health and its impacts throughout the Whanganui electorate.

“I was closer towards the end of the general debate speeches, which was quite awesome because I got to thank the people who went before me and also spoke on mental health,” he said.

“A lot of people were talking about numbers and statistics, so we helped each other’s speeches make more of an impact. Because they had already said the facts for me, I could just follow it up with a story from the electorate.”

He said some of the other speeches were impactful for him.

“It was really eye-opening. It’s always good to hear other people’s points of view and get their perspectives.”

Whanganui MP Carl Bates praised Edwards-Haruru’s speech.

“It was one of those speeches where everyone went silent,” Bates said.

“Sitting in the gallery and listening, you could feel the energy and the mana with which Taiko was received by his fellow Youth MPs and the impact of the speech, which really spoke to the funding and support for youth mental health.”

A former Youth MP himself, Bates felt that having Edwards-Haruru as his Youth MP had been beneficial for him.

“It’s been great to have someone to learn from because Taiko’s got a different background, a different world view to me, and I’ve been able to chat to him about some of the issues I’ve been working with.

“For example, we were in the process of dealing with the stalkers and harassment bill and I was sharing with Taiko the journey we were going through to deal with that, and it was interesting to be able to get his insight into that process.”

Edwards-Haruru plans on a job in agriculture when he leaves school at the end of this year. It’s a passion he pursued even during his time as a Youth MP.

“The day of Youth Parliament, when we were travelling down, I got up early that morning to milk some cows. I managed to get through about 160 cows before heading out.”

His favourite part of the Youth MP journey so far and his focus for his final month and a half are the same: hearing and responding to individuals’ concerns.

“The highlight probably has to be the connections I have made. Being able to connect with other people and get to know what they do and hear from them.

“I want to connect back to those people that helped me get down there and ask those questions in the first place, and get them the answers that they wanted.”

Olivia Reid is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.