Voting age off radar, education key

Lowering the voting age isn’t on the prime minister’s radar – but the electoral system needs to be taught in schools, she says. With Justice Minister Andrew Little announcing changes to electoral law and school pupils taking part in climate change strikes, questions have been raised about lowering the voting age from 18 to 16. In February 2018, the children’s commissioner also called for politicians to lead a discussion on changing the voting age. But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said lowering the voting age wasn’t on the agenda. ‘‘I think the problem we have is our civic education tends to focus on when children are learning core subjects and so that means that you’ll grab them quite young and start talking about the voting system, which is some way off before they ever vote,’’ Ardern told Stuff. ‘‘I do think we need closer proximity, our senior students learning about our electoral system and finding a way to put that into our curriculum . . .’’