‘Future leader’ Year 10 student Alexis Gibbens represents Geraldton in Youth Parliament

Geraldton’s political future is in safe hands, with a young leader from Beachlands attending Youth Parliament this week.

Alexis Gibbens is a Year 10 Geraldton Senior High School student who has spent this week in Perth taking part in Youth Parliament, representing the Geraldton electorate, where she has learnt about writing laws and the process of passing Bills in Parliament.

In the lead-up to the Youth Parliament sitting days, Ms Gibbens attended several training days where she learnt the process of writing Bills and drafting amendments.

Over the course of three days, Ms Gibbens and 58 other young people from across the State presented and debated Bills about issues they care about.

“I’ve learned a lot about writing Bills and how law works, and how much effort and brain power goes into things, and how much everything gets taken into consideration,” she said.

Local MLC Sandra Carr usually spends some time with Youth Parliament members when they’re in session, and said it was an important initiative as it “demystifies” the parliamentary process.

“The kids from the city, they can come in and visit parliament and sit in and watch Parliament as often as they want . . . but regional students don’t get to do that,” she said.

Ms Carr said the legislation that comes out of the process makes her feel “really optimistic” about the future of politics, and hopes that diverse young people from the regions take part in the experiment.

Geraldton MLA Kirrilee Warr called Youth Parliament a “fantastic opportunity”, pointing out her Nationals colleague Lachlan Hunter was an alumni of the program.

“It is encouraging to see young people like Alexis stepping up, and as a community we are proud of her for taking the opportunity to grow as a future leader and representing Geraldton,” Ms Warr said.

Ms Gibbens was encouraged to apply by her teacher Courtney Evans, who is an alumni of Youth Parliament from 2001 and 2003.

“I knew I would love it and I knew I would learn a lot, and I have. I was very happy that I got in because I’m able to speak about things that affect me and affect regional places, particularly up north,” she said.

Ms Gibbens is passionate about the environment, and wished there was more education on sustainability.

“It’s so easy to teach kids how to recycle, how to cut down on waste in the first place. It’s not that difficult and I think it really, really needs to happen,” she said.