Len Brown’s ‘Token’ Youth panel Needs to Go!

The New Zealand Young Nationals are calling on Auckland Mayor Len Brown to stop tokenising young Aucklanders and get real on ensuring young people are represented more effectively at a local government level.

“Len Brown’s Youth panel is wasteful tokenism, it’s not working and it needs to go,” says Young Nationals Vice President, Zach Castles.

The panel was formed earlier this year as a merger of various youth councils that existed prior to the establishment of the Auckland Council. The purpose of the panel is to oversee a new model for youth representation in terms of local government in Auckland.

An Official Information request has revealed that the youth panel receives a budget of nearly $90,000.00 of which nearly half is being spent on catered food at meetings, phone top ups, free taxi rides and internal development with no direct benefit to young people or community organisations that do make a direct difference to the lives of young Aucklanders. This budget does not include the staffing costs relating to the panel.

“The Youth of Auckland Deserve Better!” says Castles.

“Councillors and young people should be working more closely together. None of this spending is making any difference at all, it’s a wasteful PR stunt by the mayor and council bureaucrats, and it’s time to change.”

The New Zealand Young Nationals want the panel scrapped recommending a young person is appointed to every local board to provide advice to elected representatives on issues and decisions that affect young Aucklanders at the local level.

“It’s time Len Brown stops patronising young people and starts listening to the many organisations across Auckland that do represent youth. We see this as just one of many alternatives the council can use to represent young Aucklanders most effectively.”

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