Youth councillor bows out on optimistic note

Whanganui High School Head Boy, Jack Southee said there was frustrations on the youth committee but it is moving in the right direction.
PHOTO / Bevan Conley

Outgoing youth councillor Jack Southee has admitted some frustrations during his time on the Whanganui District Council's youth committee.

But he hopes it is now on the right track and that the council can work in more of a partnership with the committee to achieve its goals for Whanganui youth.

Jack joined the committee in 2015 but resigned this month due to other commitments.

"It was personal priorities," he said. "I'm also head boy at Whanganui High School and there's a lot of things I really want to do in my role here.

"It's been a huge part of my life. (Resigning) is something I did not take lightly and something I did not want to do."

His resignation is symptomatic of one of the problems, that youth councillors tend to be people who are involved in many other activities.

Effort needed to be put in to expanding the type of people on the youth committee, particularly those in the 20-25 age bracket, Jack said.

"It's (currently) a very select group of people who will really want to be energetic and really want to get out there.

"You find that the people who want to give up their time are the people who are less able."

There are 18 spots on the youth committee out of a youth population of about 4000.

"There's always going to be people that want to get on but it's about getting as wide a range of people as possible."

But he pointed out it's not unlike the district council itself.

"I don't believe the district council is representative of our Whanganui population at all."

Jack said changing who was on the youth committee would be hard because a disconnect between the youth population and local government was part of the problem.

While fixing that might seem like the role of the youth committee, it needed to be done alongside the council, he said.

He wanted to see council going into places like schools and Ucol and discussing things like annual plans, bylaws and submissions.

In his resignation letter, he wrote that he found the committee had been having to justify its place to retain its budget rather than serving youth.

Jack said he was "completely shocked" when youth committee budget cuts came out in the council's annual plan.

It was cut from $45,000 to $25,000. It did get a $20,000 rollover for the current year but also $10,000.

"I'll be honest, I was completely frustrated with council," Jack said.

"There was frustration in the sense that I don't think the way it was handled was fair.

"I didn't believe the committee had done enough to communicate with council but equally I didn't think council had communicated their expectations to the committee."

But Jack said things were changing.

"I'm really optimistic for the future of the youth committee because this has been a big awakening.

"It should be something where there's a cohesive flow between the youth population and the council where the committee can advise the council on youth activities and happenings but also spreading positive things about Whanganui for youth.

"Our purpose is to be youth based and youth driven."

He said there was "amazing council staff' who gave up time for the committee and who the committee needed to be encouraged to work alongside.

And he urged more youth to consider joining.

"If you have a passion and a willingness to want to make change... I can't recommend it enough."

By Zaryd Wilson
Wanganui Chronicle 30/9/17