New Plymouth MP Glen Bennett was willing to put his money where his mouth was when it came to keeping his promise to a group of Taranaki students.
In November last year, Glen and fellow MP Andrew Little met with a group of teenagers who had applied to be their Youth MPs for the 2022 Youth Parliament event. In announcing their final selection, Glen told the group he had been impressed by them all, and promised he would take all eight students to Parliament for a day.
Determined to keep his promise, Glen organised a day trip last month, flying those eight students to Wellington and back on Wednesday, September 28. Glen originally paid the cost of the airfares out of his own pocket, so determined was he to get the teenagers to Parliament and to keep his promise. Glen says he has since been reimbursed by his office for the cost, thanks to a budget being found for it.
"The Youth Parliament process really brought out a number of young people who applied and it was really hard for Andrew Little and I to pick just two Youth MPs," he says.
"I wanted to reward them for putting themselves out there and encourage them to be more politically aware and active."