TV star spearheads drive to get young people voting
Shortland Street star Jayden Daniels showcased the beauty of Aotearoa in the hit Air New Zealand safety video.
Now he is part of a drive for fellow Kiwis to have their say in their country’s future.
Daniels i s fronting a video, screening on social media from today, promoting the Have Your Say campaign to get as many eligible people as possible to vote in September’s general election.
Some 22.1 per cent of the 3,140,417 enrolled voters — around 700,000 — didn’t cast their vote in the 2014 election. Figures were highest in the 18- 24 and 25- 29 age groups, both with around 37 per cent not voting. Daniels, 23, thought there was a widespread misconception, “especially from youth, that ‘ oh my vote . . . is not going to make a difference’. But then when that adds up to like 700,000 people who didn’t vote in the last elections — well it could.”
Have Your Say is a community advocacy campaign by Waipareira — a west Auckland urban Maori Authority. Filming locations were around West Auckland.
“The fact around 700,000 enrolled voters didn’t bother to vote at the last election should be a concern for all of us. That’s nearly a quarter of voices that weren’t heard, and that’s not good in a democracy,” Waipareira chief executive John Tamihere said.
Waipareira approached Daniels to front the community service drive.
In the Have Your Say clip, he attempts to order a coffee at a cafe, is asked whether he wants a bag to carry groceries at a dairy, and is about to answer a work colleague’s inquiry as to whether he wants anything from a bakery.
In each case a “loud mouth” answers for him, taking away his decision- making and leaving him frustrated.
Eventually finding his voice, he asks “Isn’t it frustrating when you don’t get your say? Sometimes you just gotta speak up” — before ordering a steak and cheese pie.
Daniels, who played likable rogue Curtis Hannah on Shortland Street, said acting in the Have Your Say video, which he also helped produce, gave him a sense of the frustration of not being heard. He voted in the last election, because “I wanted to make sure that I had put my voice forward for changes that I want to see happen in the country”.
Daniels said it was up to Kiwis to have their say in New Zealand’s future and protection. Voting in the next General Election, on September 23, was “where we do it, rather than on Facebook after the votes are done, and complaining about what happens”.