A KEILOR Downs Secondary College student has been chosen as the premier of Victoria’s Youth Parliament.
Emmanuel Giakoumakis, 17, will lead 95 representatives from across the state as part of the YMCA-run program, which brings together 16 teams as a parliament to debate submissions.

People aged 16-25 will propose legislation during three days of discussions from July 5.

Emmanuel said he was motivated to join the Keilor Downs team after a friend was involved two years ago.

«Youth Parliament gives young people a platform to be heard regardless of their gender, religion, sexuality, socio-economic status or geographic location,» he said.

Six students from Overnewton Anglican Community College are involved and will put forward a bill to ban the use of glass in nightclubs and bars.

The team from Keilor Downs will propose a revised liquor reform bill to ease the cost of staging live entertainment at venues across Melbourne.

«Live music culture has been degraded and is too expensive. We wanted to fix that problem. We all love live music and have that interest in common,» Emmanuel said.

The team will put forward a penalty points system that rewards venues with low levels of incidents by reducing their liquor licence premium.

Emmanuel said the idea was that the savings in operational cost would allow reduced margins for live entertainment and security, making events safer and more accessible to young people.