Bill Shorten Wants To Lower Australia's Voting Age To 16

Over the weekend, Labor leader Bill Shorten announced his party’s commitment to lowering the voting age in Australia to 16.

If such a change went through, it would be the first major overhaul to the qualifying age since 1973, when it was moved from 21 to 18.

Before that, the qualifying age had remained unchanged since Federation in 1901.

Shorten told a NSW Young Labor Conference that “too many of you peers are falling through the cracks in our democracy,” noting the 400,000 Australians who turned 18 between 2010 and 2013 but did not enroll to vote in the last federal election.

He believes 16 year olds deserve the vote, given that more than 17,000 citizens under the age of 18 paid $41 million in taxes for the 2012/13 financial year.

It’s precisely these Australians who deserve a say in such issues as “marriage equality; real action on climate change; the equal treatment of women; youth wages; a better university system; international development; and animal welfare,” he claimed.

“[I]f Australia trusts our 16 and 17 year old citizens to pay tax and work; to join the military; to drive on our roads; to fly a plane; to make independent decisions about their medical care; then we - the Parliament of Australia - should extend that trust to include a direct, empowered say in our democracy.”

It's not much of a surprise that Bill Shorten would want to court the younger vote. According to the most recent Newspoll, Bill Shorten’s popularity is at a record low, with his standing as “better PM” sitting at 17 per cent.

No wonder he's taking a cue from eventual-President Kanye’s playbook.