Tenby Powell at a Meet the Mayoral Candidates event. File photo
Tenby Powell at a Meet the Mayoral Candidates event. File photo
A group of students have taken a Tauranga mayoral candidate to task for an event that in their opinion was more about campaign publicity than hearing student voices.
Some of Tauranga's most politically engaged young people have issued a statement expressing concerns and opinions about a youth forum Tenby Powell hosted last week.
Powell, however, claimed the youth responsible for the release were being "managed" by serving councillors, who he would not name.
Two of the teens responsible for the release said that while they knew councillors through work advising the council on youth issues they were not "managed" and had acted independently.
Mount Maunganui College head boy Louis Donovan. File photo
Mount Maunganui College student Louis Donovan, 18, commended Powell for organising the event but said in his opinion it appeared to be more about media exposure for Powell's campaign than hearing student voices.
He, Samuel Taylor and Ben Sokimi - Youth MPs for Todd Muller and Simon Bridges, respectively - decided to prepare a press release.
"We question whether the purpose of this event was to understand the concerns and opinions of youth or merely to use the youth of Tauranga as a prop in his campaign," they wrote, expressing their opinions.
Donovan said he wanted to see Powell, and other candidates, follow through on the ideas and opinions they heard from young people.
Donovan said in his view young people were not a demographic "box" to be ticked and the students did not want to see issues they cared about pigeon-holed into youth issues.
Mount Maunganui College student Samuel Taylor. File photo
Taylor, 17, said the idea for the press release was their own, the young people quoted were not politically connected to the council, and the release was drafted without interference.
He said he did seek feedback on the draft from some other people before deciding to send it out.
Powell said that he had not tried to politicise the event and that in his opinion the students had done that. He was "disappointed" with their response.
He acknowledged he had invited media to the event but, in his view, that was not politicising it. He also put out a press release about his "Voices of the future session" heralding the event.
Tauranga mayoral candidate and businessman Tenby Powell. File photo
He said he had run a lot of similar forums in his work with APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) business advisory forum and had great feedback from some of the adults who attended.
Powell said the students were asked to write the front page of the Bay of Plenty Times for 2043 and he was impressed with the quality of the suggested stories, which included Tauranga hosting the Commonwealth Games and trains running from Tauranga to Auckland.
Last week Powell, an investment banker, received an apology from Tauranga City Councillor Steve Morris who made a Facebook post making fun of Powell's mispronunciation of 'Moturiki'.
