Leeana Tamati: Some MPs even have a sense of humour

Labour MP Trevor Mallard. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Parliament is undergoing its annual invasion of young people attending the Youth Parliament - people nominated by MPs to have a go at being an MP. Their activities are being observed by a Youth Press Gallery as well, including Leeana Tamati, a 17-year-old journalism student from the Southern Institute of Technology. This is her first report.

The highlight of my first day at Youth Parliament was getting my photo taken with Trevor Mallard and a 48-year-old bottle of cognac, which is quite a big experience for a country girl from Invercargill.

I'm afraid I can't tell you much about the cognac incident. You will have to read the New Zealand Herald article tomorrow by Derek Cheng. It's a story Derek got through the Official Information Act.

Today started off reasonably slowly, due to lack of sleep.

Last night my brain decided against my will that despite a 6am start I would not be allowed a decent night's sleep. I got no sleep on the plane either, so I annoyed my fellow Southland youth journalist, Alana Dixon, with a bright light and settled into read my novel, Watermelon.

After a two hour flight from Invercargill, we finally arrived in Wellington with my teeth chattering - not with cold but nervous energy.

I doubt I have ever been that nervous in my life. I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen over the next two days and was relieved to find that a lot of my fellow youth reporters didn't know either.

The nervousness failed to leave until we had finally walked into the Beehive building and everybody started to relax slightly.

We were not allowed to bring handbags or cellphones with us and only after a lot of persuasion was I even allowed my notepad and pen. There was no way I would ever go anywhere without my notepad, for fear of missing a story.

It opened with a powhiri and a message from the Governor General, Hon Sir Anand Satyanand. However, I felt as if I was back at school again, with the person in charge telling us "you can't be late or you'll get that time taken off your lunch".

Minister of Youth Affairs Paula Bennett welcomed the young MPs into a briefing of the bill they will be discussing tomorrow, when the Youth MPs speak in Parliament - the Age of Majority Bill. Labour MP Jacinda Ardern pretty much summed the bill up - there are a lot of contradictions as to what age we are seen as adults. For example, that people are tried as adults in a court when they are 17, but cannot legally purchase alcohol, or vote until they are 18 and even now they are discussing raising the purchase age to 20.

I somehow lost myself in the Parliament building after the briefing as I had no idea what I was to do. I was apparently a little too keen to cover my Select Committee - the Social Services Select Committee. It was discussing how to support young people to be safe with alcohol, an issue being discussed all around the country at the moment.

I was found by one of the Ministry of Youth Development staff after a while and sent to meet my mentor, Audrey Young, political editor for The New Zealand Herald.

So far today, I have found that MPs and parliamentary staff are not as intimidating as I thought they'd be and they all seem very happy to see young people here. And quite contrary to my belief, some even have a sense of humour.