Participants in NSW Youth Parliament have to write a bill, in conjunction with other young people from across NSW, presenting a solution to a problem they think affects young people.

The bills are then presented to members of the State House of Representatives at NSW Parliament House and then passed on to the NSW Premier and Leader of the Opposition for review.

The training camp provides participants with an opportunity to get to know each other, seek assistance from past participants of NSW Youth Parliament and industry experts and prepare their bill for presentation at NSW Parliament House in June.

Ms Rennie, who attends Year 11 at the Lightning Ridge Central School, said the camp was a great opportunity.

Ms Rennie is serving on the committee for youth affairs.

There are seven other people serving on the same committee as Ms Rennie however she is the only one from a rural area.

Prior to attending the training camp Ms Rennie’s committee had established that its focus would be domestic violence.

Ms Rennie’s committee is proposing that a compulsory unit on domestic violence be made part of the curriculum for students in Years 5 to 9.

The unit would involve a two-hour workshop, held annually, on domestic violence and how to deal with it.

The training camp provided Ms Rennie’s committee with a chance to assign each member of the committee a task to ensure the bill would be complete by the due date, as well as seek advice from their taskforce member, a past participant of NSW Youth Parliament.

Ms Rennie said her committee had worked hard over the two-day training camp and would continue to do so in the lead-up to the camp held in June.

Ms Rennie said she would like to thank the Walgett Shire Council for sponsoring her to attend the camp.

Without the council’s support Ms Rennie says she would not have been able to go.

Ms Rennie also said she would like to thank George McCormick, the Walgett Shire Council’s Youth Development Officer, for making her aware of the NSW Youth Parliament because it has proved to be a very valuable opportunity.

Ms Rennie says she is looking forward to making use of the skills and knowledge she has acquired as a result of her participation in the NSW Youth Parliament, particularly at the local youth council.

Ms Rennie has served for the past two years as the secretary of the Walgett Shire Youth Counci which was named the Best Small Council in NSW in 2009.