--- title: New Zealand Green Party MP Dropped 'OK Boomer' In Parliament description: Twenty-five-year-old Chlöe Swarbrick, a Green party MP in New Zealand, was delivering a speech on a Zero Carbon Bill. canonical: https://time.com/5719674/ok-boomer-new-zealand/ author: Madeleine Carlisle article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-11-06T17:20:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:01:01.764Z og:title: Yes, This New Zealand Politician Just Dropped 'OK Boomer' in Parliament og:description: Twenty-five-year-old Chlöe Swarbrick, a Green party MP in New Zealand, was delivering a speech on a Zero Carbon Bill. og:url: https://time.com/5719674/ok-boomer-new-zealand/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Yes, This New Zealand Politician Just Dropped 'OK Boomer' in Parliament twitter:description: Twenty-five-year-old Chlöe Swarbrick, a Green party MP in New Zealand, was delivering a speech on a Zero Carbon Bill. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The 'OK Boomer' Meme Has Officially Entered Parliamentary Record in New Zealand ## Video: Protesters March in New Zealand in Second Wave of Global Climate Change Protests [Watch (HLS stream): Protesters March in New Zealand in Second Wave of Global Climate Change Protests](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/eJUj4nSN.m3u8) (0:54)  _Published 2019-09-27. Tens of thousands of people marched to New Zealand’s Parliament on Friday, launching a second wave of worldwide protests demanding swift action on climate change._  by [Madeleine Carlisle](https://time.com/author/madeleine-carlisle/)  ## Madeleine Carlisle Nov 6, 2019 5:20 PM UTC  by [Madeleine Carlisle](https://time.com/author/madeleine-carlisle/)  ## Madeleine Carlisle Nov 6, 2019 5:20 PM UTC The decisive rise of the “OK Boomer” meme continues. On Monday, an MP from New Zealand’s Green Party, 25-year-old Chlöe Swarbrick, delivered a speech in support of a [Zero Carbon Bill](https://www.mfe.govt.nz/climate-change/zero-carbon-amendment-bill), which would provide a framework to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions and establish a new [Climate Change](https://time.com/climate-change-solutions/) Commission. The government’s previous plan to limit greenhouse gases has been [criticized](https://www.smh.com.au/world/oceania/new-zealand-announces-plan-to-become-carbon-neutral-by-2050-20190509-p51lh1.html) by climate activists as insufficient. “Mr. Speaker, how many world leaders for how many decades have seen and known what is coming, but have decided that it is more politically expedient to keep \[climate change\] behind closed doors?” she asked. “My generation and the generations after me do not have that luxury.” **Read more:** [_Why TIME Devoted an Entire Issue to Climate Change_](https://time.com/5669069/time-climate-change-issue/) “In the year 2050 I will be 56 years old… yet, right now, the average of this 52nd Parliament is 49-years old,” she continued. In response, another MP began to heckle her. “OK boomer,” Swarbrick shot back. > [](https://twitter.com/Jasonwalls92/status/1191579220004065280) Not sure what she’s referring to? The phrase [“OK boomer”](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/style/ok-boomer.html) comes from a viral meme that originated on the social media site [TikTok](https://time.com/5594374/tiktok-artists-money/). The videos usually include an audio clip of an older man saying, “The millennials and Generation Z have the Peter Pan syndrome, they don’t ever want to grow up.” Teens then include their reactions, always a variation on the phrase “OK Boomer.” The phrase has taken off across the Internet and beyond, and become a common retort used by young people when confronting condescension from older people, usually those of the [Baby Boomer generation](https://time.com/5280446/baby-boomer-generation-america-steve-brill/). > [](https://twitter.com/Skoog/status/1184810398165454848) > [](https://twitter.com/JustiPhoneThots/status/1191755113565761542) [In an interview with _Stuff_](https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/117196427/chle-swarbrick-explains-what-ok-boomer-means), Swarbrick explained her use of the phrase: It’s a “simple summarisation of collective exhaustion,” she said. “Young people have suffered a decade of jibes about how millennials have ruined everything and need to ‘pull our socks up,’ or something.” “‘OK boomer’ acknowledges that you cannot win a deeply polarized debate — facts don’t matter,” she continued. “It’s better to acknowledge that perhaps energy is better spent elsewhere.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5719674/ok-boomer-new-zealand/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5719674/ok-boomer-new-zealand/"},"headline":"The 'OK Boomer' Meme Has Officially Entered Parliamentary Record in New Zealand","datePublished":"2019-11-06T17:20:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:01:01.764Z","description":"Twenty-five-year-old Chlöe Swarbrick, a Green party MP in New Zealand, was delivering a speech on a Zero Carbon Bill","url":"https://time.com/5719674/ok-boomer-new-zealand/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Tech","Internet","New Zealand","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Madeleine Carlisle","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/madeleine-carlisle/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5719674/ok-boomer-new-zealand/","name":"The 'OK Boomer' Meme Has Officially Entered Parliamentary Record in New Zealand"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Protesters March in New Zealand in Second Wave of Global Climate Change Protests","description":"Tens of thousands of people marched to New Zealand’s Parliament on Friday, launching a second wave of worldwide protests demanding swift action on climate change.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/eJUj4nSN/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2019-09-27T06:24:40.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/eJUj4nSN.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5719674/ok-boomer-new-zealand/","duration":"PT54S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5719674/ok-boomer-new-zealand/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```