Push to lower voting age continues despite judgement

A GROUP of 16yearolds has been rebuffed by the High Court in its bid to gain the right to vote.

The Make it 16 group argued that the voting age was unjustified agebased discrimination.

In its judgement, the court said the question of the voting age was a complicated one, and more work needed to be done before it could say whether the age should be lowered.

Group spokeswoman Ella

Flavell told RNZ: ‘‘The discussion needs to be had in Parliament and . . . in the public and a lot of policy work needs to be done around lowering the voting age and I think that’s how the court interpreted their decision.’’

Her group needed to focus on convincing MPs of the cause.

‘‘At the end of the day in our government system it is down to Parliament whether they want to lower the voting age.’’

The group was writing an open letter to political parties.

‘‘We’re always pushing to talk to our local MPs and ensure we’re getting out into the public as much as possible . . . we’ve also submitted to select committees as much as possible.’’

The basis of its argument was a declaration of inconsistency with the Bill of Rights Act.

‘‘That was more of the legal side, saying it is unjustified discrimination to not allow 16 and 17yearolds to vote . . . that is only one small part of our campaign.

‘‘Our main campaign is to push that 16 and 17yearolds deserve the right to vote, that it is a fundamental right, and that 16 and 17yearolds actually are capable of doing this as shown by countries that have lowered the voting age already.’’

Lowering the age would strengthen democracy, she said; studies had shown it made people more likely to vote throughout life.

The group had had ‘‘a lot’’ of support so far, she said.

The Green Party was publicly supporting lowering the age, and ‘‘a couple’’ of Labour MPs, such as Greg O’Connor, were on board.

‘‘We’re currently working on the National Party. I think a lot of the National MPs are quite sympathetic to our argument.’’

Ms Flavell said 16 and 17yearolds were missing out on having their say on the future of New Zealand at a time when the Covid19 recovery and climate change were pressing issues.