On Wednesday 26th August around a hundred Year 13 students gathered in the Café to hear from four local political candidates in the lead up to this year’s General Election.

A small group of Hagley students had organised the event, which saw representation from each of the major political parties.

Sol Rogers Mullins, Quinn Ledgerwood-Gee, Elvis Nicolls, and Andrew Lomax-Sawyers expressed a wish for students to be able to hear directly from the candidates about their values and policies, and to be able to ask questions, before deciding at the polls come October. Well, where there’s a will there’s a way! With many emails back and forward, and lots of event planning, the group were able to arrange that Dale Stephens (National), Dr. Chrys Horn (Greens), Dr. Duncan Webb (Labour), and Mark Arneil (NZ First) would present to students here at Te Puna Wai o Waipapa.

As the candidates prepared to speak and students began filling the Café, a real buzz of anticipation could be felt. Our MC for the event, Elvis Nicolls, welcomed our guests and the presentations began. While all of them were engaging, each candidate certainly had their own style and approach, and it was a great opportunity for the audience to hear the policies ‘come to life.’ Dale and Mark both shared their journeys to entering politics and how their lives had shaped their standpoints and views today. Duncan suggested that our students voting for the first time this year should really consider the values of the leaders and parties, while Chrys shared her party’s core principles and reinforced their commitment to engaging with the Treaty of Waitangi.

We finished with an open ‘Q & A’ segment and several students asked thoughtful questions of our visiting speakers. There was a lot of interest in the topics of the referendum and we quickly ran out of time. Our Year 13 students were so interested in finding out more and speaking with the candidates individually that it was tough for them to pack up and leave! As the students drifted off and we closed up the Café for the afternoon, each of the speakers expressed how engaged our students were and that they’d loved the opportunity to discuss what matters to them.

Here, Sol Rogers-Mullins, explains why he and his friends were so keen to organise this event: "The idea of hosting a political event at Hagley suddenly came into existence while we were waiting in line at the cafeteria. It all unfolded pretty quickly, and after checking everything off with the school admin, we were drafting up invitations to the local candidates before the end of the day! The candidates themselves were very approachable and with the election looming on the horizon, didn’t waste any time in getting back to us. We were pleasantly surprised to find that all four people we had gunned for, agreed to come to the event. We were even more surprised when all four turned up on the day!"