9th Commonwealth Youth Parliament : 25th February to 1st March 2018 Report by Amy Lee Fraioli and Keiran O’Neill

Official Picture of the 9th Commonwealth Youth Parliament in the Royal Square

Welcome to Jersey – Sunday 25th February We learned very quickly that the parliamentary systems of Jersey and Scotland could not be more different if they tried. Jersey’s parliament – the – deals with every issue facing islanders from the most local issues such as planning decisions to matters of national significance including the government’s budget or international relations. Jersey also has a non-party political system, all 49 members of the States Assembly with the exception of three members have no party affiliation. No one sits by party groups, instead members are divided into three groups, each with different mandates – 8 Senators (representing the whole island), 12 Connetables (representing a parish/town) and 29 Deputies (representing individual constituencies). That night, we attended a welcome reception in our hotel hosted by Connetable of St. Clement, Len Norman, who chairs the Jersey CPA Branch and would be our Youth Parliament’s Presiding Officer. We had the opportunity to meet delegates from across the Commonwealth and to begin building relationships in advance of the official business. It was a great opportunity to meet so many fantastic young people from places as diverse Kingston, Jamaica and Adelaide, South Australia. We knew immediately that we were going to be in good company. Getting to Work – Monday 26th February The formal opening of the 9th CYP featured contributions from the Deputy Bailiff and as well as CPA Secretary- General. Artour Sogomorian, a delegate from British Columbia presented a paddle commissioned by the Speaker of the BC Legislative Assembly which would serve as the Youth Parliament’s mace We were also introduced to our four mentors, each a parliamentarian from a Commonwealth legislature – Jersey, Turks and Caicos, Guyana and Kenya. We were given a thorough introduction to the States Assembly and the Commonwealth Youth Parliament by Mark Egan, of the States (Clerk). He gave us a lot of insight into the role of the Jersey parliament and its workings, as well as the format for the Youth Parliament – ‘The Legislative Assembly of Commonwealthland’. The Youth Parliament was one of minorities – the Government party did not have a majority in the Chamber and could be easily outvoted by the Opposition and Independents. The government which had just 20 members were characterised as a typically conservative right of centre party while the opposition were much more economically to the left with 22 members. This meant the government could only function with the support of at least half of the 6 independent members. Following this introduction, we had our first caucus meetings. Both the Government and Opposition party groups were tasked to choose our party leader, deputy leader and whip; in addition to this, we had to select our ministers and spokespeople, a party name, and discuss which propositions we wanted to be debated. The Government Caucus – the Common Ground Party (CGP) – elected Mark Montegriffo (Gibraltar) as Chief Minister, Ben Sawyer (Wales) as Deputy Chief Minister and myself as Government Chief Whip. We also appointed Ministers for Education, Health, Planning, Tourism and a number of other policy areas. The Opposition Caucus – the Commonwealth Progressive Party (CPP) – elected Pierre de Garis (Guernsey) as Leader of the Opposition, Elsie Harry (St Kitts and Nevis) as Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Brett John (Wales) as Opposition Chief Whip. They also appointed spokespeople to shadow the Government Ministers. Amy Lee was also appointed as Opposition Deputy Chief Whip – this meant both the Scots were responsible for keeping our respective parties united, apparently, our accents got us the job! The first official business of the Youth Parliament was the Speech from the Throne which was delivered by His Excellency, Air Chief Marshall Sir Stephen Dalton GCB, Lieutenant Governor of Jersey. This was very similar to a Queen’s Speech or the Programme for Government statement. The Lieutenant Governor set out a broad range of government policies on issues such as tax, education and planning. The Government had made the decision to support the propositions on Planning, Skills and Economic Support, while the opposition wanted to see their proposition on health debated instead of economic support. The government had sought the support of independent members by agreeing to support the independent planning proposition in return for their votes in favour of economic support. This did not end well as the majority of the independents sided with the Opposition who managed to secure a debate on a motion in favour of free healthcare. It was an early and embarrassing defeat for the Government. Directly following this we headed to caucus needing to prepare for the next day’s proceedings which would feature debates on planning followed by education/skills, as well as questions and statements. This was arguably the most stressful time for the whips trying to organise everything in advance of the looming deadlines. That evening the Secretary-General of the CPA and Connetable of St. Helier hosted all delegates at the Town Hall for a small reception followed by informal dinner at a local pub. It was at this the first piece of real intrigue happened as we got word that a number of members had created a third party! The Voyageur Party made up of 8 delegates from across the chamber felt that the current parties were not representing minorities in Commonwealthland and made it clear to both parties that they would work with whoever would support their policies – they would be the kingmakers of CYP9.

Expecting the Unexpected - Tuesday 27th February Our day began with an educational session facilitated by Jersey’s Assistant Chief Minister on the structure of parliamentary Question Time. All party groups had spent a lot of time the previous night preparing questions to Ministers, the Government tried to make this as easy an experience as possible while the Opposition did their best to do the opposite. The Government learned very quickly that Question Time is not a fun experience – especially when they were asked the most intricate questions on policy – that did not actually exist and we had next to zero understanding of – while the opposition delighted in running rings around us. Question Time was followed by a ministerial statement on education from the Deputy Chief Minister and what was the greatest shock of the week when the Government’s Tourism Minister – Ade O’Neal (Barbados) – stood up and moved a motion of no confidence in the Government. This was a shock that caused additional drama in the chamber, resulting in many members getting out of their seats to speak to the opposite side. The Presiding Officer made it crystal clear after countless points of order that the motion would be debated in the afternoon and if it passed the Opposition would be asked to form a Government. We then went on to debate a motion brought forward by independents which would reform the Government’s Planning policy. The Government, Opposition and Voyageurs all sought to amend the proposition. The Government wanted to amend the proposition so that planning decisions were made by local communities and that certain areas would benefit from tax breaks rather than increases. The Opposition however wanted to use the reforms to increase revenue on new developments whilst the Voyageurs wanted affordable housing to be prioritised. The debate featured a lot of very considered contributions and it resulted in a rainbow proposition being passed with every party being able to slightly amend the motion and then passing it. Immediately following the morning session ended, we had to juggle a social media session and trying to stop the Government from being removed from office. The Government were very honest and told the opposition they best get ready to take office. Yet, somehow, after looking at every procedural trick in our short rule book about how to stop the vote the government realised no one had bothered to speak to Ade. We then had a chat and realised he was unhappy with decisions that had been made and that the Group’s executive had not been listening to members, the Chief Minister (very professionally) acknowledged he had not been the best leader and said he would improve by listening to everyone. And just like that the motion had been withdrawn and the crisis had been averted! The next item of business was a debate on the Government’s skills proposition led by the CGP’s fantastic Education Minister – Colleena Piper (Guyana) – who took great pleasure in attacking the so-called progressive opposition. The opposition tried to amend the motion however failed as the Government was able to win the support of the Voyageurs. The final vote passed with 25 in favour, 22 against and one abstention – the Greffier just said “the abstention was Mr O’Neal” – suddenly everyone in the room looked at me and I genuinely thought that Government’s Chief Whip had hit the wrong button, thankfully after the hilarity it was actually the Tourism Minister who made that mistake. Needless to say, it had been a mixed day for the government - from being defeated in the morning, facing a vote of no confidence at lunchtime and then winning in the afternoon. That night, members were hosted by the Connetable of St Clement at Highland College for a dinner. We had a chance to speak with Jersey’s Education Minister who would not stop praising the work of Scotland in terms of education and youth engagement.

Winning the Argument - Wednesday 28th February The following morning followed a similar routine to the previous day with an education session in the morning – this time with local journalists and a deputy focusing on politics and its relationship with the media. This was followed by each party giving a press conference on the previous day’s proceedings and the journalists did not hold back on the tough questions. Following a quick tea break, business moved quickly onto the Health debate, which was a very difficult subject for the government as many of us personally supported universally free healthcare but in our role as the government were bitterly opposed to it. The Shadow Health Minister – Brenton White (New South Wales) opened the debate and made an incredibly passionate speech in support of his motion. Unlike the previous day: it was the opposition who were able to win the support of the Voyageurs. This was the most interesting debate of the whole week with incredibly well informed and emotional arguments being put forward by members on all sides of the chamber. It was such a tough debate that the government lost several members - including the Deputy Leader - during the debate. Just before the final vote, it was agreed that the Government would support the final amended motion and it gave me the opportunity to give a final speech and share with other delegates the wise words of Donald Dewar when he opened the Scottish Parliament in 1999 - “We are fallible. We will make mistakes. But we will never lose sight of what brought us here: the striving to do right by the people; to better their lot, and to contribute to the Commonweal.” Our final social event of the week was a dinner hosted by the Deputy Bailiff of Jersey, it was a fantastic opportunity to celebrate what had felt like the longest week of our lives with some amazing people who have made it a wonderful experience.

Saying Goodbye - Thursday 1st March All good things must come to an end, even despite the weather, Thursday was to be the last official day of the 9th Commonwealth Youth Parliament and it was incredibly sad. We had made many friends and learned a lot in just a matter of days. The final sitting of the CYP took place in the morning and featured contributions from the Chief Minister of Jersey, the Minister for External Relations as well as speakers from the Government and Opposition parties. We both had an amazing time and were looked after at all points by the amazing staff at Parliament and at the States Assembly who made sure we were safe and sound even when you were stranded in Jersey and then London. In particular, we owe a lot of thanks to one of our mentors - Deputy Sam Mezec (Jersey) who always made sure we knew what we were doing and welcomed us to Jersey. We cannot thank the amazing staff at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, States Assembly and the spectacular International Office at the Scottish Parliament for giving us this amazing opportunity.