Should Australia lower its voting age personally it's a bit of a mixed thing because um you know some people will take it seriously some people won't I just I just want to be young I don't want to I don't want to think about the voting and stuff like that you know I just want to say my little kid error I definitely think that young people will.
Be interested in politics these days and they generally be interested in things that relate to them I think young people are like more like gullible in a way they won't make the right decisions I guess they might mess around with it when we turn 16 we can get jobs pay taxes open bank accounts learn to drive and apply to be in the army look even.
With certain conditions and approvals you could get married but you can't vote in elections at the moment the voting age is 18 but it hasn't always been this way for a long time the voting age in Australia was 21 but after two world wars and a war in Vietnam where soldiers under 21 were forced to fight many.
Thought it wasn't right that young OES could die for their country but not vote so the voting age was lowered to 18 in 1973 the liberal government is recognizing that 18-year-olds have minds and that they are aware and that they are conscious of what's going on but at the time not everyone was happy do you think 18-year-old should get the vote at.
This year's election definitely not why not um say that the majority of 18y olds aren't sensible enough to vote has fast forward a few decades and there's a new push to lower the voting age we are the generation that will inherit the consequences of the decisions made today yeah yeah for sure this is Tabitha she's 19 and a co-founder of make it 16 which.
Is a national campaign to lower the voting age to well 16 young people are in on ated with news with things that are happening with politics and everything like that and so I think it's not so much a key interest of young people is politics it's more the issues that have political like backgrounds and politics impacts those such as the.
Climate crisis the housing classes the cost of Education all of those things young people are facing but they are also political issues neither the federal government nor the Coalition is looking to lower the voting age but it is is backed by the greens and some independent and green Senator Jordan.
Steel John who is the youngest senator in Australia's history has been a big Advocate 16 and 17 year olds are passionate and there's about eight or so countries that have done this so far what we've seen is a better democracy for everyone because way more people is taking are taking part in the process and when you get more people involved in.
Democracy you get better outcomes for everyone it would bring a almost a million new voters um into the Democratic conversation I think it would really transform conversations around some of the the key areas that get talked about in Parliament House Austria Brazil and Germany are just a few countries with 16 as their voting age.
And New Zealand is currently grappling with the idea of lowering the age so one of the really key examples of lowering the voting age to 16 working has been in Scotland um they've had the lowering lowering the voting age for a while now and you actually see that young people who start voting at 16 um way more engaged when they get to the older years.
Of voting because their voting system is non-compulsory it's seen a huge voter turnout for those over the age of 18 once they start at 16 while lowering the voting age is being embraced by a growing number of countries around the world not everyone is on board with it here in Australia because people.
Have because braing the kids they don't have any idea they've never held a job they've never paid Texas they have no understanding of politics me personally I have views of like and worries about the future of what could happen in the country and stuff like that but I I don't really know much about it though I think um we're more like social media.
Based and we take our opinions from social media and we don't have like any judgments from this we just hear oh this person says this we we're going to agree with that I feel like we don't get taught much about it and that it could change our perspective if we were I don't think they're very educated much in in school so maybe they wouldn't be.
That interested oh we need like way more we get two weeks worth of oh here's a bunch of names and then that's it we all know that civic education in Australia is you know not very good often and there's a responsibility on the government the education system to provide people with that information um and that knowledge you can't just have.
The voting age being lowered you also have to partner that with education and making young people informed so I think that the mechanisms behind that within the curriculum is a bit of a challenge but it's definitely an achievable um goal so will 16-year-olds be able to hit the polls well maybe not for a while but.
What I would say is to all the young people out there who want to have a say on things like electoral matters and if they are keen on things like lowering the voting age this is the right time and the right mechanism to have your say on this by going onto the government's website finding the standing committee on electoral matters and making a.
Submission into that inquiry so while we might not see a change anytime soon Advocates say young people are more politically engaged than ever and should be listened to from the cost of living crisis the housing crisis all the different crisis it's really really difficult for young people to move around in the world from the age of 16.
17 everyone's pretty mature you know they're all up to date with their staff and they do have some pretty strong thoughts so yeah I think we should be able to vote I think it would change the vote significantly cuz obviously young people have different opinions to that of adults 16-year-olds should be able to vote because I feel like they should.
Also have a say with what's going on because if you think about it when we get older it will be affecting us
