I’ve been living in Australia for the past two years after I migrated from Greece, but never imagined that I would return representing the Greek community of Australia in the Youth Parliament.

The Youth Parliament is a program that was established in Greece in 1995. It’s an innovative program of the Greek Parliament, its objective is to infuse active participation of young people in the processes of the parliament, just as they would if they were elected MPs. There were 300 participants in all, 260 were from Greece, 20 from Cyprus and 20 from the Hellenic diaspora.

For this reason I feel very lucky to have been chosen to represent the Greeks of Australia and very grateful to the school I attend, St. John’s Greek Orthodox College, which gave me this unique opportunity. The first day of the program was Friday 31 August. We were welcomed with a dinner at our hotel, where we had the opportunity to get to know each other.

The next day, three out of the five committees went to meetings on draft laws at the parliament building. At this point, to clarify, the 300 teen MPs were divided into five committees: Committee on Cultural Affairs, Committee on Defence and Foreign Affairs, Committee on Economic Affairs, Production and Trade, Committee on Social Affairs and the Committee on Public Administration, Public Order and Justice. My committee, the Committee on Economic Affairs, didn’t have a meeting. Instead, we went to visit the Parthenon and the new Acropolis museum.

Our visit to this ancient, holy place left us full of pride and admiration for our ancestors and we realized that the ancient Greek ideal is still alive. The new Acropolis museum left us with the best impressions. It was very well organised, with many interesting exhibits. All Greeks should visit this museum, when given the opportunity, to admire the history of the Acropolis.

The evening of the same day we watched a very interesting contemporary performance of ancient drama, the tragedy of Euripides’ Iphigenia of Aulidis. The actors, all distinguished in Greece, performed with passion and intensity, giving us an unforgettable experience. On the third day of the program, Sunday 2 September, it was my committee’s turn to discuss on the bill Restoring fairness in taxation and addressing tax evasion. We gathered at the Parliament building and specifically in the G. Alevras room. After a careful reading of the act of parliament and a detailed discussion, a vote was taken in principle on the articles and on the total act of parliament by a raising of hands.

The whole process was facilitated by two members of the official Greek parliament Mr Ioannis Karabela and Mrs Helen-Irene Agathopoulou. Before the end of the meeting the rapporteur and the two speakers of the plenary of the House were chosen. Finally, at the end, the secretary of the meeting drafted the essay topic of the committee. The day of the Plenary Assembly, Monday 3 September arrived.

We were escorted by police patrol to the Parliament building. We gathered in the conference room and waited anxiously to start the process. The chairman of the Parliament Mr Vangelis Meimarakis, opened the meeting after greeting the President of the Republic, Mr Karolos Papulias. Afterwards the rapporteurs form each committee spoke briefly about their bill.

A very interesting experience was the twenty-minute interruption of the meeting, as we were given the opportunity to talk in a friendly level with some Greek MPs that were present in the Parliament, such as Mrs Liana Kaneli, who answered our every question with alacrity. In the second part of the meeting, two speakers from each committee commented on specific articles of the bills.

To conclude the meeting, we were asked to vote for or against, by show of hands. We had three options of votes; positive, negative and neutral. Personally, I tried to vote keeping in mind all that had been said during the meeting, and drawing from my experiences in the time I have lived in a country so well organised like Australia. The closing session left us with mixed feelings after four days full of unique experiences.

We learned a lot about the procedures followed in the Parliament, but the most important thing was that we made acquaintances with teenagers from around the world, forming strong friendships and bonds that will last forever and across continents. I would like to express my deepest thanks to my Greek language teacher Mrs Papakonstantinou and the St John’s Greek Orthodox College for their support and guidance in order to represent the Greek Australian Youth school community in the Greek Parliament.