Planning a Youth Parliament
A “Youth Parliament” is a day long event, where young members of your political party debate head-to-head against representatives of your opponent parties, following the rules and procedures of parliamentary debate. One side acts the role of government, the other serves as the opposition. There is only one thing in politics that is usually more fun that a Youth Parliament – and that is an election victory!
The notes below provide a guide for organizing all details of a youth parliament. Some of these organizational issues must be resolved internally within your Youth Wing and other issues must be brokered in negotiations with opponent political parties.
ISSUES FOR BIPARTISAN NEGOTIATION
Standing Orders.
The debate needs some basic rules to ensure fairness to both sides. It is best to use condensed parliamentary standing orders, so that participants can easily use the rules without the need for some prior expertise. When Standing Orders are simple, clear and fair to both sides (government and opposition), then the personality of the Chairman is less central, and you will not depend so much on the Chairman to maintain a fair debate through his rulings.
Try using the attached condensed parliamentary standing orders which have been tried an tested in previous youth parliaments. These rules have no inherent bias to either side, so, if you use these, you can avoid wasting time negotiating new standing orders.
If you plan on holding a Question Time, then there must be rules to determine when questions are “in order”. Any questions that seek statistics should be ruled out of order. Unless you are a real Minister, you cannot be expected to have a comprehensive knowledge of statistics within your mock portfolio. If a question on the day becomes too specific, the Speaker could be asked to resolve whether the question is “in order.”
In some parliaments, questions must be “with notice” – that is they must be submitted in advance to the government by the opposition. In other parliaments, all questions are “without notice” (no warning for Ministers). In other parliaments there is a mix (a primary question is with notice, then follow-up “supplementary” questions are asked without notice). If your opponents agree to having all Questions on Notice, then seek an agreement that questions will be submitted to the other side at least a week before. This gives your “Ministers” time to do some research.
Quorum should be set at a higher ratio of delegates, than the ratio which you would find in a real parliament. In real parliaments, parliamentarians are often busy elsewhere in the building on legitimate committee business or constituent business. However there are no such distracting sideline activities alongside a youth parliament and you want to ensure that all delegates get the most of their parliamentary experience.
Time limits for speeches must be determined. 5 minutes is reasonable for most speakers, although the proponent of a mock bill could be given longer (for example 7 minutes).
Notice Paper (Timetable)
We need a parliamentary “Order of Business" to spell out at what hour Question Time begins, when legislation is debated, when an adjournment is debated, and so on. This ensures that people who are leading a debate know when to be ready. This also makes it easier to schedule media filming. This also means that we allocate sensible allotments of time to each part of the parliamentary program. The attached Notice Paper makes a good model to replicate - it has worked well in previous Youth Parliaments. This model allows participants to experience various kinds of debates, without letting any one item of business dragging on too long.
A “Matter of Public Importance” is a debate on a general issue chosen by the opposition party. Censure motions could be dealt with within the time slot for “Matters of Public Importance”. This encourages the official opposition to focus on policy debates rather than personality debates. Given that none of the mock Ministers have really committed improprieties, it seems a waste of time to debate censures or no-confidence motions.
“Personal Explanations” can be accommodated in a time slot for adjournment debates. The emphasis should be on issues, rather than maligning personalities.
Venue
Permission to use a parliamentary chamber must be granted by the presiding officer – usually called a “Speaker” or “Chairman” or “President”. Some parliaments do not allow their chambers to be used at all for non-parliamentary purposes. If this is the case, you will need another room with desks that be arranged in the horseshoe shape of a parliamentary chamber.
Be aware that most venues will have hiring charges (even parliaments). Such fees will cover security staff, electricity, cleaning, and other related costs. The cost may require a per head attendance fee. Be sure to pay any charges on time, so that the name of your Youth Wing is not tarnished. It would be wise to pay in advance, to ensure that your opponents are not tardy in paying their side of the expenses.
Presiding Officer
If you use a parliamentary chamber, then you will usually need a parliamentarian to act as "Speaker" (parliaments only let groups book their chamber with a politician present). If you use a non-parliamentary venue, you will still need a speaker with parliamentary experience. Note that if you have a prominent sitting parliamentarian in the Chair, then their presence can also act as a draw-card to attract your own members as participants and observers. Your speaker must also be seen as relatively impartial by both sides. One approach is to alternate between two Speakers, one nominated by each side. Another approach is to find an Independent Parliamentarian or City Councillor who is respected on both sides.
Date of the Event
The date you choose may depend on the availability of the person who has been chosen as Speaker. The availability of your preferred venue may also be important. Lastly, do not forget that it is important not to clash with a period of the year when your own members may be unable to come (for example because of exams or holiday seasons).
Food
If a Youth Parliament is to provide a realistic experience of parliamentary practice, then you need to sit for at least a day. Accordingly you may need lunch arrangements at the very least (and perhaps dinner arrangements, plus morning tea and afternoon tea).
You may want to arrange a joint lunch with your opponent party, perhaps with a fee charged to raise a slight profit. The money raised could cover the costs of hiring the venue.
Alternatively you may choose a venue that allows participants to buy their own lunches from nearby shops.
Delegate Numbers and Ratios
There are several parts to this decision on the composition of the chamber. First you must determine whether seat numbers in your mock parliament will be based on the party ratios in your national parliament, state parliament, local council (or whether you replicate the lower house or upper house chamber of a parliament).
You may chose to replicate the national parliament, so that you can debate national issues.
The parliament chosen as a model will determine the outcome of votes. If you replicate a parliamentary chamber where one side has an outright majority, be mindful that this has the disadvantage of leading to predictable vote outcomes. By contrast a “hung” parliament model (where no one party has a majority) provides opportunity to practice doing deals between parties. A hung parliament also makes it more likely that parties will stick to the order of business and not ambush each other with unexpected debate topics. But this ambush problem can also be solved in prior negotiations, by agreeing to stick to a scheduled order of business.
The disadvantage of replicating some hung parliaments is that it gives a King-Maker role to a minor party which has the balance of power.
A related question that must be resolved, is to agree with your opponents on the total number of youth delegates. You need to pick a ratio, to multiply by the number of politicians in the parliament which you are replicating. You may consider having 2 or 3 young people per parliamentarian. Bear in mind the number of chairs in your chosen venue and do not be too ambitious by choosing a number of seats that might be hard to fill. It would cause your side embarrassment if you cannot fill all your allocated seats.
If there are factions within one party, it may be wise to agree that there cannot be part defections to the cross-benches during the day. It could be agreed that defectors will be deemed to lose their seats.
ISSUES FOR INTERNAL PREPARATION
Front Bench Appointments
Allocate Ministries or Opposition portfolios to individuals. Your party leader may be the President of your Youth Wing, or alternatively your best public speaker.
Ask for volunteers to indicate which portfolios interest them. You may need an internal selection panel, to determine who has the most policy knowledge in each portfolio, or to determine who are the best public speakers.
Mock Bills
You need to contrive two or three mock bills for debate (for 45 minutes to an hour debate each). There can either be one bill per party or all government bills.
One strategy is to mirror the debate a real bill that is being debated in your national parliament by your respective party leaders. If you take a prominent proposal, then your members will already be knowledgeable about the proposal.
Another approach is to design an original policy proposal that will split the factions in your opponent party. This will hamper their ability to mount a coherent response to your proposition.
You can either have a short bill spelt out clause-by-clause, or have a general motion which you pretend has a bill attached. The "Phantom Bill" approach can generate debate of a high quality, without the need to spell out clauses. This allowed debate to focus on the merits of a proposal, rather than diverging into boring procedural debate over amendments to fiddly clauses.
Policy Research
Reseach needs to be done within your party on policy issues which you want to raise in the Youth Parliament. Approach your party’s parliamentarians to seek a set of Speakers Notes for each portfolio which your frontbench members must speak on. Good notes are needed if you want your frontbench to perform well in Question Time.
For each Mock Bill proposed by your side, you must also provide fact sheets and speaking points for all your party representatives.
Seating Plan
Both sides need to exchange the names of their front bench and portfolio allocations beforehand, so that people can refer to the correct names and titles. This process also provides the discipline of ensuring that parties organize attendance by their members early on.
Rostering (Speaking Order)
This is purely an internal party matter. Each side needs to appoint a couple of people to lead the debate on each bill. The government also has to arrange Dorothy Dixer questions and corresponding answers (matching a questioner with a Minister).
The backbench can speak randomly in Private Members time, but this must be arranged through the respective whips. Appoint a party whip. An assistant is not necessary in a one-day affair, unless you have a large number of delegates or you intend to run beyond one day. The whip must ensure that our side fills all our speaking spots in the program.
Youth Parliament Kit - Attachmed Documents:
* Standing Orders
* Notice Paper (Order of Business)
* Indemnity Agreements