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If you ask Michael McPhail what sort of person he is, he is likely to tell you that he enjoys cliff-jumping.

The 20-year-old Honours student isn't talking about an adventurous pastime; rather his approach to life and his love of new challenges.

Michael is the youngest local government councillor in Western Australia, and probably in Australia.

After being elected last year, the Urban Planning student decided to do his Honours year part-time, over two years, so he can devote enough time to his role as a councillor in the Town of East Fremantle.

"I've always been driven to test myself in the leadership sense," Michael said. "I did think about getting involved in leadership in the student Guild, but decided that I could make a bigger impact outside the campus."

His two roles, urban planner and local councillor, fit together perfectly.

"Being on council is a great opportunity to get a different perspective of urban planning, from housing and the nitty gritty details to strategic policy," he said.

He recently spent three weeks in Busselton on work experience in the local planning department. "But I also spent a lot of time talking to councillors and understanding the difference in perceptions between the elected officers and the council staff."

Michael was the head boy at All Saints College in his final year at school.  Since then, he has worked with 2013 Young Australian of the Year Akram Azimi in the youth-run initiative , I am the Other , which aims to create a sense that Aboriginal heritage is also the heritage of mainstream Australia.  He also worked closely with 2013 Rhodes Scholar David Sherwood as the inaugural Chief Financial Officer of Teach Learn Grow , a not-for-profit education group which tutors and mentors rural primary school students.

He runs the speakers' program for the Rotary Club of Crawley, which has the youngest membership in the country.  Also a member of that Club is former UWA employee Reece Harley, the youngest councillor in the City of Perth.  Michael and Reece have set up a group of councillors under the age of 30, to support each other and encourage other young people to get involved.

"I think there are about 14 or 15 of us in WA," he said.

While he has to force himself take time out for fun, Michael said most of his friends were not surprised at his involvement with local government.

"I wish more students like me would get involved. I've learned so much, particularly about how different people are and how to communicate with people in different ways."

East Fremantle's youngest councillor beat two others to his seat last year: a man who had lived in the town for 50 years, and the CEO of the Fremantle Chamber of Commerce.

He is the town's representative on one of Perth's four big regional councils, Southern Metropolitan Regional Council, which represents a quarter of a million people and has a turnover of $26 million a year, to run the region's recycling and waste facilities.  "It's an incredibly steep learning curve to be involved in something as big as this."

He hopes, eventually, to improve the sustainability of cities and, to this end, he is planning to learn Mandarin. "Asia is where the money is and, if cities are to be sustainable, this must be invested in sustainable ventures," he said.

He credits living in East Fremantle with one of his basic philosophies.

"There is a strong Baha'i community in East Fremantle.  They are fantastic people and they have taught me about unconditional love for everybody I meet," he said.

He doesn't rush up to everybody and hug them, but it's certainly a good platform from which to learn about acceptance and communication.