The question of a youth parliament, or youth assembly, indeed, as Lynne Neagle referred to it, which I think I would favour as well, is one that has been discussed a number of times in this Assembly by many AMs past and present over the years, but we’ve never quite got there—well, certainly not yet.

This is, at the end of the day, about democracy—increasing youth participation and getting voter turnouts up, and I think we would all want to do that. Currently, Wales is one of six devolved nations without a youth parliament, and that’s simply not good enough. It’s not just us saying this, or AMs across parties saying this; the United Nations agree. As has been said, they believe that a youth parliament in Wales would be a key way of supporting article 12. The children’s commissioner has also said something similar. The children’s commissioner sees it as a vehicle for engagement and enfranchisement. A youth parliament featured in more than one party’s manifesto, so this is one of those issues that is genuinely cross-cutting across all parties, and would have widespread support were it to go ahead.

But, although Members like Lynne Neagle have campaigned for a long time for this sort of development, it’s still not a key priority of the Welsh Government, or certainly hasn’t been up until this point. That’s the reason for us bringing this debate forward today—to show that it’s not just one party, it’s all parties, it’s the Assembly as a whole. We would like to see the Welsh Government bringing forward legislation in this area to establish this or an appropriate mechanism.

This isn’t just about giving a democratic voice to young people. It’s also about creating a new conduit that can provide more robust scrutiny to the democratic processes in Wales. Young people will be able to give evidence more directly to National Assembly committees, as has been mentioned by Mohammad Asghar. But let’s go back to this issue of engagement, which, in Wales, let’s face it, historically, is at a low. The Hansard Society’s audit of political engagement in 2014 showed that just 30 per cent of young people are certain to vote, but, as we know, 58 per cent would be prepared to do something if they felt strongly enough. So, young people have a different way of approaching politics—different to the older generations, at any rate. It’s one that we should recognise and we should provide mechanisms and vehicles that are suited to that.

Now, I’m not standing here stating that a youth parliament is the be-all and end-all and will change everything overnight for the better. It would be ludicrous to claim that. It won’t. I don’t believe that lowering the voting age to 16 is a silver bullet either. In fact, in the past in this Chamber, I’ve not been an advocate of lowering the voting age. I must admit my views on this issue have moved, but I think that whether it’s about the voting age or whether it’s about a youth parliament, none of these alone are sufficient mechanisms to increase youth engagement. But, taken together as a package, I think that there is a vehicle there that would be capable of moving the arguments on. I’ve come to the conclusion that this is one key way that we could do this. We want young people to engage, so we have to engage with them and them with us. It’s a symbiotic process.

I imagine we would all want to see voter turnout for Assembly elections on a par with general elections in Westminster, and getting young people more involved in the process here in this Assembly is a step towards doing that. But it won’t just happen by words alone, and I think it’s time for us to see action on this front to get these things done.

The UK Youth Parliament was born in 1999, the year this Assembly itself was born, so maybe we aren’t that far behind, but we still have a lot of groundwork to do, and the sooner we start, the sooner we will get there. As we’ve heard, other areas have done it. Northern Ireland set up a youth forum back in 1979. Scotland’s institution has been lauded as offering one of the highest levels of youth participation anywhere. So, not that far away in this United Kingdom, youth parliaments and youth fora are working, have been working and will work into the future. Further afield, in Australia, youth Bills can get passed on to the actual Parliament for their review. So, young people really feel engaged in the overall process in Australia at a very young age.

This will only work here if we have strong links between schools, other educational facilities and the new youth parliament or youth assembly that we want to create. As Mohammad Asghar said in his contribution, this is about creating a healthy, vibrant democracy overall. Young people aren’t young people forever. They are the older people of tomorrow. We were all the younger generation once—at least I think many of us were—and we are here now. So, let’s get on with the job. Yes, let’s talk about this in this debate today and let’s agree that we need a youth parliament, but let’s get on with laying those foundations today so that that youth parliament can be up and running as soon as possible and we can get on with creating a far healthier and more vibrant democracy in Wales.