New Zealand Will Consider Whether To Extend Voting Rights To 16-Year-Olds

Should Australia be doing the same?

New Zealand’s Supreme Court has ruled the current voting age of 18 is discriminatory, which means the parliament must consider lowering the voting age to 16.

The decision has come as a result of a national campaign called "Make It 16", which is aiming to lower the voting age to 16 to address key concerns of New Zealand’s youth, including climate change, housing costs, education, mental health and more.

The Supreme Court has just declared that preventing 16 and 17 year-olds from voting is inconsistent with the Bill of Rights. Parliament cannot ignore that. It is time to make the voting age 16!!!!!!

— Make it 16 (@makeit16nz) November 20, 2022

"Make It 16" brought the case to New Zealand’s Supreme Court as they believe it was an infringement of their rights under New Zealand law.

New Zealand’s Bill of Rights guarantees people aged 16 and over the right to freedom from age discrimination – Make It 16 felt that included voting rights.

"Make It 16"’s Co-Director, Caeden Tipler, 17, celebrated the verdict.

“Preventing me and other 16- and 17-year-olds from voting is an unjustified breach of our right to be free from age discrimination. The government and Parliament cannot ignore such a clear legal and moral message. They must let us vote,” they said.

New Zealand voting at age of 16?

Hell yeah 🤙

— Johan Sundstein (@OG_BDN0tail) November 21, 2022

Unlike in Australia, the Supreme Court’s decision doesn’t automatically change the law, but it does force the parliament to draft legislation to consider the change, and would require a 75 per cent majority vote to pass.

NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said she’s personally in favour of lowering the age of voting, but her party, the Labour Party, hasn’t officially announced a position.

If successful, New Zealand would join countries like Switzerland, Austria and Malta in extending suffrage (voting rights) to 16 and 17-year-olds.

Should Australia consider doing the same?

As a 16-year-old in Australia, you can legally drive, work, and apply for the army – but you can’t vote.

There’s been debates about lowering voting age in Australia for a few years now, as the ACT considered legislation earlier this year, and a bill was introduced to the NSW parliament by the Greens.

100%

The age of voting in Australia should be lowered to 16 & 17 year olds#auspol https://t.co/oMRnTKmwjD

— Adam Samuel (@yourmateadam) November 21, 2022

Helen Berents, Senior Lecturer in Youth Justice at the Queensland University of Technology said in 2019 that enfranchising young voters would be beneficial to Australia.

“Lowering the voting age would allow young people who already are politically and socially engaged in their communities to formally participate in our democracy. Enfranchising young people would provoke a more diverse political dialogue that would be beneficial for all Australians.”

We asked Student Edge followers what they thought about enacting voting rights for young Australians.

58 per cent of respondents said they supported youth voting, and nearly two-thirds said they’d take the opportunity to vote in an election as a 16-year-old.

A whopping 90 per cent of respondents said that young people needed to be heard in politics more.

Some followers called into question why 16 and 17-year-olds are able to drive and raise a family but aren’t able to vote in elections.

Although youth suffrage isn’t at the top of the government’s agenda right now, we’ve seen young people involve themselves in political issues recently, particularly in student climate protests.

If New Zealand does enfranchise young voters, many are saying Australia should follow suit.