New Zealand Young Labour

Young Labour (formerly Labour Youth; Māori: Te Rangatahi Reipa) is the combined youth wing and student wing of the New Zealand Labour Party. It hosts an annual conference and holds a range of additional national events, including fringe sessions at the Labour Party's annual conference. All Labour Party members aged 15 to 26 years old are members of Young Labour.[1]

New Zealand Young Labour
Te Rangatahi Reipa
PresidentSamantha Wood
SecretaryWill Matthews
Preceded byLabour Youth
HeadquartersWellington, New Zealand
IdeologySocial democracy
Mother partyNew Zealand Labour Party
International affiliationInternational Union of Socialist Youth
Websiteyounglabour.org.nz

Description

Young Labour is the most active sector in the Labour Party and plays a significant role in policy development and campaign efforts. It is often called the 'conscience of the party'. Young Labour has worked on issues ranging from climate change and improved rental housing standards to liquor law reform and to opposing Voluntary Student Membership.

Although Young Labour is not an organisation which necessarily leads to a political career in Parliament, many of the Fifth Labour Government's Cabinet, including former Prime Minister Helen Clark and former Labour Party leader Phil Goff began their political activism in Young Labour, as did the current Prime Minister of the Sixth Labour Government, Jacinda Ardern.

Activities

Conference

The Young Labour Conference, held annually, typically in April, and doubling as the sector's Annual General Meeting, is the highest decision-making body of Young Labour. It elects the Executive, alters the Constitution and decides the sector's policy priorities for the current year.[1] The Conference also functions as a social and activism highlight on the Young Labour calendar, with addresses from Members of Parliament and activities such as canvassing commonly being a part of the programme.[2]

Policy Priorities

Each year Young Labour selects a number of policy priorities at its conference. These become the target for Young Labour members to ensure their passage at the Annual Conference of the Labour Party. These are advanced by Young Labour members playing an active role in debates at the Regional and Annual Conferences of the Party. In addition, Young Labour elects a representative to the Party's Policy Council who plays a role in ensuring Young Labour members' policy ideas are heard in the party.

Campaigns

Young Labour is an important part of the Labour Party's volunteer base at national and local elections. Young Labour members are involved in canvassing, election-day volunteering, and campaign managing across the country. Young Labour also runs public campaigns on certain political or policy issues that the sector deems important to young people. In addition, Young Labour runs an annual Campaign Leadership School to train members in the skills of executing successful political campaigns, and a Summer School (open to the wider party) to have discussions and workshops on the wider direction of Labour in government and in opposition.[3][4]

Clarion Tour

In the week preceding Summer School, a group of Young Labour members travel to cities around New Zealand on a volunteer community service tour. Members play a role in assisting and highlighting the work that volunteer community groups play in New Zealand society by providing a day or half-day's labour at each organisation.[5]

Structure

Executive

The Young Labour executive is elected annually at the Young Labour Conference and includes representatives from every region. There are currently 21 elected members.

Regions and Branches

In line with the organisation of the wider Labour Party, Young Labour is organised into six geographical regions for the purposes of campaigns and policy debate.[6]

Within these regions, the primary unit of organisation are a number of Special Branches or University Branches of the Labour Party. Some, like Princes Street Labour and Vic Labour are based around universities, whereas others are based in regional centres. There are also branches catering for Māori, Pacific Islander or teenage members of the sector.[7]

Summer school sexual assault case

In February 2018 allegations of multiple sexual assaults at the Labour youth summer school in Waihi by a 20 year old man emerged.[8] The Police subsequently launched an investigation and laid five indecent assault charges against the alleged perpetrator, before withdrawing one of them, citing an administrative error.[9][10] Labour leader and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was not informed of the allegations immediately, and learnt of them from a journalist moments after the story was published.[11] The Labour Party itself was aware of the allegations, but failed to tell the Prime Minister.[12] As a result of the allegations the Labour Party suspended all youth party events and launched an investigation into the sexual assaults and allegations of underage drinking at Labour youth events.[13] Once this report was completed, however, Ardern declined to release the report publicly, citing the charges still before the courts.[14]

A Young Labour Summer School did not take place in 2019, which many commentators attributed to the controversy surrounding the previous year's summer camp. The alleged perpetrator pleaded not guilty to six charges of indecent assault in July 2018 and was granted interim name suppression.[15] In September 2018, the Crown dropped two of these charges against the accused.[16] On 2 September 2019, trial proceedings against the defendant began at the Auckland District Court. During the trial, the defence lawyer John Munro accused one of the victims of making up parts of history and exaggerating the incident.[17][18] On 4 September, the defendant pleaded guilty to two amended charges of assault against two young men while the two remaining assault charges against the two women involved were dismissed.[19][20]

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See also

Notes
  1. "The Constitution of New Zealand Young Labour" (PDF). Young Labour. 16 April 2016. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  2. YL Conference - Young Labour, Young Labour website. Accessed 18/06/2013.
  3. Campaign Leadership School - Young Labour Young Labour website. Accessed 18/06/2013.
  4. Summer School - Young Labour Young Labour website Accessed 18/06/2013.
  5. Clarion Tour - Young Labour Young Labour website. Accessed 18/06/2013.
  6. Regions - Young Labour Young Labour website. Accessed 18/06/2013.
  7. Branches - Young Labour Young Labour website. Accessed 18/06/2013.
  8. "Sexual misconduct alleged at boozy Labour Party camp". Newsroom. 2018-03-12. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  9. "Police confirm investigation into Labour summer camp sexual assault claims". New Zealand Herald. 14 March 2018. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  10. Hurley, Sam (5 July 2018). "Labour Party camp indecent assault accused appears in court". New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  11. Young, Audrey (13 March 2018). "Audrey Young: Jacinda Ardern should be 'bloody angry' - instead she has been too forgiving". New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  12. Braae, Alex (2018-03-13). "Labour camp sexual assault: Who knew what, when?". The Spinoff. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  13. Cheng, Derek (15 March 2018). "Labour Party summer camp inquiry to probe possible drug use and underage drinking". New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  14. Bennett, Lucy (29 August 2018). "Jacinda Ardern defends not releasing Austen report into Labour summer camp". New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  15. Livingston, Tommy (5 July 2018). "Labour Party summer camp accused pleads not guilty". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  16. Owen, Catrin (12 September 2019). "Two charges dropped against man accused of sexual assaults at Labour Party summer camp". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  17. Chang, Chris (2 September 2019). "Trial begins for young man accused of multiple indecent assaults at Labour Party summer camp". 1 News. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  18. Owen, Catrin (2 September 2019). "Labour party summer camp: Victim 'freaking out' when allegedly indecently assaulted". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  19. "Guilty plea midway through Labour camp trial". Otago Daily Times. 4 September 2019. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  20. Owen, Catrin (4 September 2019). "Labour youth camp trial: indecent assault charges withdrawn, accused pleads guilty to assault". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
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