Scone student represents Upper Hunter in Parliament

SCONE Grammar student Sam Barry has been elected as the Upper Hunter Member of Parliament to represent the electorate in the 2021 YMCA NSW Youth parliament program.

The 16 year old MP will spend the next few weeks creating a Housing in Rural and Regional Areas Bill, which will be sent to the Lower House of state parliament and possibly even be brought into law.

Mr Barry has been placed into a committee for rural and regional affairs and will spend a week debating the Bill in parliament with his fellow MPs during the July school holidays.

Upper Hunter Youth MP Sam Barry wants to pursue a career in politics. Photo supplied.

The aspirational Youth MP who wants to pursue a career in politics is ecstatic to be selected to represent the Upper Hunter and said he is keen to represent “younger views” in Sydney.

“Our chosen Bill topic has been housing, all the way from people sleeping rough to affordable compass housing,” Mr Barry said.

“We are trying to find solutions to get more affordable housing to young people. It’s particularly important to some of the group members, such as the representative for Snowy Monaro,” he said.

“Once our Bill is finalised and we get to Sydney, we’re separated into the Opposition and the Government to reflect the real Government. We get to go for ministerial positions and the Premier and Leader of the Opposition. I’d like to get as far up the ladder as I could, Premier is the goal,” he said.

The Rural and Regional Affairs committee is made up of fifteen MPs, who meet online weekly to discuss their Bill.

Mr Barry is currently looking to speak with Upper Hunter community members to gain real insight on how to shape the Bill, which may be passed in actual parliament.

“We have zoom calls every week and we have a group chat where we send each other news articles from our own electorates to give each other understanding of each other’s electorate,” Mr Barry said.

“We have another six or seven weeks discussing and finalising that Bill and what it will look like before we head down to Sydney in the July Holidays. We then get a week in parliament and debate the Bill as part of a legislative assembly and will put motions through until we finalise the Bill,” he said.

“The Bill can be passed into actual parliament. I believe in 2019 they passed a Bill relating to domestic violence disclosure, which was finalised in Youth Parliament,” he said.

“If the community has anything to say regarding the housing situation, I would love to hear their comments and get in touch with them about their thoughts or experiences,” said Mr Barry.