GOOD Shepherd College student, Sam Bendeich, 17, has been lucky enough to be selected in the YMCA 2024 Youth Parliament Program.

The Year 11 student is one of 120 young people aged between 16 and 25 from across Victoria that have been given the chance to be heard at the highest levels of the Victorian Government.

Through this program, they can share their views on a wide range of issues relevant to their lives and support them to speak up and be heard about issues that they are interested in or passionate about.

Sam said the process of being selected was very simple.

“I was gifted the opportunity by networking through the Young Leaders Program and they gave me the information for it and then I just went ahead and applied,” he said.

“You just have to answer a few questions and (say) why you want to be in the program, what you can offer and then they ran through the applicants - there’s only 120 people chosen and they scrutinise it and I was selected.

“We join a team of six, so I joined the team down at Moyne.”

Sam said he was inspired to apply because he envisaged a career in politics in the future.

“Maybe not necessarily a politician but one of those positions like an adviser or something like that,” he said.

“I’m interested in that field.”

“I’m doing (studying) 1,2, Politics this year and next year Politics 3 and 4”.

Sam has enjoyed many aspects of the Youth Parliament Program.

“We had a training weekend where we went and met everyone and then we’ll do the actual Youth Parliament in a couple of weeks,” he said.

“The training weekend is held in Bacchus Marsh, there’s a camp there and then we’ll go down to Melbourne by bus.

“The Youth Parliament itself is a one-week program so it’s three days in Melbourne at Parliament and then we go back to (Bacchus Marsh) for other activities.”

Sam said he also really enjoyed the networking aspect of the program.

“I’ve really found the connection of people with similar views (to be really enjoyable) and interested in what you are interested in,” he said.

“It really opens your eyes to see that there are young people that actually do like what you like in politics.

“You get to learn a lot of the process … and you get to meet a lot of MPs too so it’s good for networking skills.

“I’ve met Emma Kealy, Roma (Britnell) and Bev McArthur and Dan (Tehan) and Senator (James) Paterson.”

“I don’t think politicians have it easy.

“I’ve seen how Dan (Tehan) gets approached by constituents and they have a lot of complaints, things that he doesn’t have responsibility for - they get frustrated.

“The average person doesn’t know the difference in the levels of government, local, state and federal.”

Through the Youth Parliament Program Sam has gained a strong sense of hot button issues that impact local people.

“One of the key things that I’ve got from this experience is housing is going to be a major issue for young people,” he said.

“That’s what the Youth Parliament is all about young people, so I think that it’s a very important (issue).

“Energy is the other - the transition (to renewables).

“They’re my main two things I think are going to be very important in the future.”

Sam believes that the approach to energy in the future should be hybrid.

“You can have nuclear, coal, and part renewables,” he said.

“I think that’s a better way forward - you can meet the demand.”

Sam is very excited about the imminent week in Parliament he will have from June 30 to July 4.

“Ours (group’s Bill) is about public transport - revitalising it for regional and rural communities,” he said.

“It affects us out here.”

“When we do our Bill, we have a team on the other side of the chamber who will debate it.

“We’ll be debating with them through the week and if it passes it is handed to the minister.

“It can actually be enacted into law.”

Sam is motivated to take any opportunity to come his way and has also applied for the My First Speech competition that affords those selected to travel to Canberra to the Federal Parliament.

Sam’s father, Jason Bendeich is very proud of his son’s enthusiasm and interest in political issues.

“When Sam was little, we took him to the video shop and of all the videos he could have had, he chose Presidents of the United States,” Mr Bendeich said.

“We knew then that he had a strong interest in politics - he wasn’t quite the same as other kids.