Even when everything started to snowball around them, a cold cone for each of the council members did the trick.

Last month, the Taxpayers’ Union erected an inflatable council outside Hastings District Council, as the union protested for young people’s right to vote on council committees.

Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson and former Hastings ward youth councilor Jordan Williams said New Zealanders wanted adults back in charge of councils.

Williams said he knew “a little bit about being one of the jerks on the youth council because I was one of them.”

Proctor, president of the Youth Council and a student at Lindisfarne College, said none of them had experienced anything like the surreal reaction.

“It was a vertical learning curve. We expected difficult questions, because it was very controversial, although in our opinion it was a no-brainer.

“We had to learn to deal with it as a group and we support each other… we do things together to get through it.”

Proctor said a lot of “misinformation” was spread around the council’s eventual resolution to allow voting rights to junior councilors, who sit on a subcommittee rather than the full council.

“We’re not going to decide how much rates will go up,” Proctor said.

“But we could vote on where the cones go on this or that road.”

While the council passed a resolution to grant the Youth Council voting rights (if desired) on committees and/or subcommittees, no decisions permitted by that resolution have been made and no youth votes have been cast.

A process is being considered on how this could be managed.

“If the council decides to move forward with this, we will only have the right to vote on the subcommittees and we already have the right to speak on these committees,” Proctor said.

“We had a rift and if it doesn’t work out, we’ll move on and try something else. “It would be disappointing, but we have no regrets.”

Proctor said his biggest opposition was the Taxpayers Union.

“I know it’s their job, but it was difficult to deal with them. “We wanted to take the right path at all times.”

Youth Council Vice President Bowen Steffert, 18, said it would not be a political issue if two different opinions were not formed on the matter.

But he found it ironic that people who opposed allowing them the right to vote “call us names like ‘clipboard losers’ and ‘stupids.’”

“They called us children and other names, quite ironic. “I learned a lot from that,” he said.

“I’d never seen a clipboard at a youth council meeting, but after that we adopted one as a mascot.”

Proctor said council was split 50/50 on the decision and it was similar in the community as well. While they have received negative comments, they have also received many positive ones, including “tons of emails congratulating us.”

“It was pretty impressive,” Steffert said of those behind them. “There were a lot of supporters in the council chambers.”

The Hastings Boys’ High School student said it was his third year on the youth council and he had never learned so much.

“At the beginning of the year there was a debate about whether we wanted to follow a more political path. We continue to host events and raise money for community grants.

“But we all agreed that we wanted to focus more on the political education aspect; look where it has taken us.

“Plus, they don’t pay us. We have never said we wanted to get paid. It was not in our proposal. “We talked about donating it if it happens, but now that’s all in the hands of the council.”

Proctor said if young people don’t have a voice, someone else will speak for them.

“It is a huge problem at the national level. “We have started a conversation bigger than we ever thought possible.”

He said the reason young people didn’t vote was because they didn’t know who to vote for and they thought their vote wouldn’t make a difference.

“But youth can make a difference, what you do matters.”

Steffert said he was delighted that people were talking about the idea of ​​voting rights for young councilors both inside and outside Hawke’s Bay.

“Hopefully it inspires others. “It’s very good.”

Proctor will return to the Youth Council next year, while Steffert is off to university in Auckland as an aerospace engineer and says he can see himself in politics in the coming years.

“I love it.”

To become a youth councilor, candidates must submit a video along with a written application and then undergo an interview. In 2024, there will be 17 youth councilors representing schools across the Hastings region.

This year, along with their political advocacy, they have raised more than $1,500 for youth grants, and that fundraiser is led by youth councilor Keaton Pitcher.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.