17 year old wins four way selection
Stuff reports:
The National Party is pitting a Feilding teenager’s youth and passion against a sitting Government minister in Palmerston North in 2020
He can’t even vote yet, but William Wood, 17, has become one of the youngest electoral candidates ever.
Now this wasn’t some tokenistic gesture where Wood was selected in a seat that no-one else wanted.
Wood defeated National’s 2017 candidate Adrienne Pierce, newcomer Ava Neal, and sitting National MP Jo Hayes to secure the party’s nomination.
He beat three other candidates including a List MP and the 2017 candidate. That’s deeply impressive for anyone to do, let alone a 17 year old.
“I’m excited and humbled,” Wood told an energised crowd after the National delegates chose him after a single round of voting.
And he won on the 1st round meaning he got more votes than the other three candidates combined.
Wood drew a hearty laugh from the crowd when he promised not to touch a drop until he cracked the bottle on his 18th birthday in January.
He said his selection demonstrated National’s commitment to meritocracy; that age, ethnicity or sexuality isn’t as important as being able to do the job.
“Choosing me as the candidate sends a message, that we’re going to do something different.
“[It says] if you’re passionate, hard-working and believe in our values you can succeed with [National] no matter what.”
He wasn’t selected because he was 17. He was selected because local delegates backed him.
Despite his youth Wood has already wracked up an impressive list of achievements.
In addition to his active work in his community, Wood served as a Youth MP this year.
In that role he helped form the Rangitīkei Youth Advisory Group and was selected as one of three youth policy developers, and sat on the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade select committee.
He is also one of New Zealand’s top youth diplomats, the only youth delegate to be chosen two years in a row to represent the country at the Evatt Diplomacy Competition in Australia.
William may be young on life experience, but he has certainly done a lot to date. His record includes:
- only person selected two years in a row to represent New Zealand at the Evatt Diplomacy Competition in Australia.
- selected as the top debater for Super Eight Schools Competition
- placed nationally at the United Nations Association of New Zealand speech competition
- Youth MP for Rangitikei
- member of the Palmerston North Youth Council
- representative on the PNCC’s Creative Communities Committee
- School’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Secretary General
- received a Manawatu District Council Recognition of Achievement
- founder of the Manawatu Schools Debating Competition
Palmerston North is not a marginal seat, but it will be interesting to see where William gets placed on the party’s list.