‘OK, boomer’ quip by New Zealand MP, 25, goes viral

A 25-YEAR-OLD New Zealand politician dismissed a heckler during a speech about climate change with the viral quip, “OK, boomer”, highlighting the generation gap between herself and other MPS.

The phrase – which refers to the baby-boomer generation – has gained popularity among young people on social media in recent months as a way of brushing off the views of older generations perceived to be out of touch, condescending or closed-minded.

Chlöe Swarbrick, a Green Party MP, was speaking this week in support of a bill to reduce New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 when she was interrupted.

“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 said. “My generation and the generations after me do not have that luxury. In the year 2050 I will be 56 years old ... Yet, right now, the average [age] of this 52nd parliament is 49 years old.”

As she spoke, another MP began to jeer from his seat, before Swarbrick fired back: “OK, boomer.”

The retort – mostly used by young people online – appeared to fly over the heads of MPS in the house at the time. But as clips were shared on social media it made headlines, with messages streaming in from young supporters.

Swarbrick told Stuff.co.nz, a news website, that the phrase “is symbolic of the collective frustration that young people in particular feel to placing evidence in fact time after time in the debate ... and being met with dogma”.

Lawmakers yesterday passed the bill with cross-party support. As well as the net zero target, it establishes an independent climate change commission to advise the government on how to achieve its climate goals.

Jacinda Ardern, the New Zealand prime minister, said: “I hope it means the next generation will see that we ... were on the right side of history.”