Five MPs travelled to Westport as part of a Parliamentary Outreach Programme aimed at connecting New Zealanders throughout the country with Parliament and its processes.
It was the students' questions that left the biggest impression, proof that an honest discussion with kids can break down barriers and get to the core of things.
Five MPs travelled to Westport this week as part of a Parliamentary Outreach Programme aimed at connecting New Zealanders throughout the country with Parliament and its processes, and they left feeling energised if not slightly triggered by their exchanges with school kids.
The delegation, which took in visits to two primary schools and a polytech, was led by Parliament's Speaker Adrian Rurawhe and also included Maureen Pugh of the National Party, Jan Logie of the Greens, plus Labour MPs Helen White and Greg O'Connor.
At each of the two schools, St Canice's and Westport South, students aged around 11 and 12 took part in a role-play debate with the MPs which Rurawhe presided over. To create the scene, a rollout screen displaying Parliament's Debating Chamber was set up in the classroom.
At St Canice's, the motion being debated was whether private whitebait sales should be taxed, while at Westport South they debated whether the requirement for school uniform should be removed. The students offered some compelling arguments and gave succinct speeches which some MPs would do well to emulate rather than waffling on to fill up time.
To the point
The debates were followed by Q&A sessions in which, as Logie explained, the students "asked us really probing questions that were relevant to the quality of our democracy, just about how we thought about the Parliament, how it affects us as people and how it impacts on our families".
The MPs laid their souls bare to questions like: Have you lost any friends or people close to you because of what side you're on in Parliament? To which White noted that it had changed relationships with a lot of her friends.
"A lot of them want to tell you what they think about what you're doing. And most of the time I don't want to know. I don't want my family to tell me what they think. I am making my own decisions about what I think. I want them just to be my family. And I feel like that about my friends. I don't want to talk about politics with them. I want to talk about anything else," she said.
The MPs were asked if being a member had affected their marriage, to which O'Connor opened up about how it had been a factor in the breakdown of his.
"There's a lot of pressure and time spent away from home. A lot of politicians' marriages do break up," he admitted…