OPINION: The One Young World Youth Awards have become a platform for the self-promotional elite, rewarding questionable figures while ignoring actual merit.
The latest example? The Herald proudly reported that Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, the country’s youngest MP from Te Pāti Māori, won a major international award.
Maipi-Clarke was one of four recipients of the One Young World Politician of the Year award—an accolade that, apparently, no longer requires a solid fact check.
Remember her dramatic claims about her house being ram-raided and vandalised for political reasons? Her statement in September 2023—“To the people who ram-raided my house, who came into my house and threatened me… don’t be scared, because the Kōhanga Reo generation is here”—was eagerly gobbled up by the media, only for the police to quietly debunk it weeks later.
Turns out, it was a straightforward theft, not a ram-raid. Police even confirmed that there was no political motivation behind it. But by then, the damage had been done, and the victim narrative was already locked into the public consciousness.
Yet this falsehood didn’t seem to faze the organisers at One Young World. When pressed, their Director and Head of Campaigning, Matthew Rowlands, sidestepped the issue entirely, saying, “It is an unfortunate truth that young women running for office are more likely to encounter harassment.”
Is that supposed to excuse the blatant misinformation? The award celebrates politicians for their impact, not their ability to drum up a pity party through exaggerated claims.
And Maipi-Clarke’s win isn’t even the most absurd. Shaneel Lal, another darling of the awards circuit, took home recognition too. Lal, famous for leading the movement to ban gay conversion therapy in New Zealand, has built his brand on outrage and division. Yes, the ban is important, but let’s not pretend Lal is a paragon of inclusive debate.
He regularly attacks anyone who doesn’t toe his rigid line. Rather than fostering discussion, Lal has become the poster child for shutting down dissent and amplifying hysteria. Remember when he claimed the burning of a Rainbow Youth facililty was an attack on the LGBTQ+ community, only for a judge to clarify it had nothing to do with hate?
And it’s not just his reckless commentary on hate crimes. Perhaps the award judges at One Young World were unaware that Lal had also been found to breach broadcasting standards. In November, the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) ruled that Lal made a materially inaccurate statement during a TV segment when he falsely alleged that British anti-trans activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (also known as Posie Parker) told her followers that “due to the transgender agenda, cisgender women are being kidnapped, blended, and put into meat for human consumption.” The BSA said Lal’s comment “strayed into the realm of personal attack” and misled viewers about Parker’s perspective.
What does it say about One Young World when these are the people they prop up as exemplary leaders? Their definition of leadership seems to be wrapped in controversy, false narratives, and a refusal to engage in actual dialogue. The irony is thick—while the awards claim to celebrate those who “champion” democracy and social justice, they end up spotlighting figures who do more harm than good by perpetuating division and misinformation.
The upcoming One Young World conference includes a discussion on elevating “2SLGBTQIA+ Indigenous people.” How much more convoluted can we make the language of identity politics? Sneaking numerical symbols into an already overloaded acronym isn’t making the movement more inclusive; it’s turning it into a parody. This relentless focus on expanding labels alienates everyone who isn’t equipped to navigate the linguistic minefield.
In the end, One Young World is less about fostering genuine leadership and more about propping up anyone willing to ride the wave of victimhood and identity politics.
If this is the future of global recognition, it’s not something worth celebrating.
