The New Zealand Young Nationals, more commonly called the Young Nats, is the youth wing of the National Party, a centre-right political party in New Zealand, and a member of the International Young Democrat Union. History The National Party has had a youth section since its inception in 1936, and are a constituted youth wing of the National Party. The Young Nationals have been a strong lobby group inside the National Party, and often at the forefront of policy development being representative as a Core Group or a Policy Action Group of the party at varying times. For a short period during the party's earlier years there was a younger section of the National party for pre-teenage members but has since disappeared due to the changing environment of New Zealand politics and society. Prior to the group being named the Young Nationals, the New Zealand National Party's Youth section was known as the Junior Nationals. In the lead up to the 1949 election, the Wellington branch had 3,500 members and the Auckland branch consisted of 2,500 members. The group hosted a number of community events such as dances, parties, debating or discussion, and lectures or addresses. In 1967 the group voted to change the name to the Young Nationals as Junior Nationals was seen to have potentially negative connotations. This renamed group attracted members for political reasons rather than social activities like its predecessor. In 1968 the National Party agreed to for two Young Nationals to sit on the party's Dominion Council. 1971 brought upon Young Nationals creating political discussion groups called 'Pol Link's' which enabled the group to research and discuss political issues allowing the National Party to understand the contemporary issues of young generations. In 2015 the Young Nationals claimed to have over 20,000 likes on their Facebook page and over 6,000 official members. In 2022, Young Nat member Jessee MacKenzie admitted creating social media accounts under fake names to harass and troll female politicians. One targeted politician, Sara Templeton, made an application to a district court under the Harmful Digital Communications Act, which revealed the IP address of the harassment to have come from a house owned by Bryce Beattie, also a Young Nats member, where MacKenzie lived. Both MacKenzie and Beattie resigned from the National Party. Structure In 2009, under major changes led by the organisation's governing executive, the Young Nationals were re-organised to serve as