Greens' bill to lower voting age to 16 rejected in Assembly

The ACT’s young people are some of the most politically engaged in the country, but ACT Labor and Liberals did not support the Greens’ bill to lower the voting age to 16.

“Our students here in the ACT have the highest level of civics and citizenship knowledge of anyone in the country, that’s both at the year 6 and year 10 level,” Education Minister Yvette Berry told the Assembly when the bill was debated on Thursday (21 September).

Minister Berry said to the young people watching the debate: “I know that the change you were hoping to see today may not be the outcome that you would have liked. However, don’t be discouraged. Continue your advocacy and your activity.”

Special Minister of State Chris Steel said Labor fundamentally disagreed with the bill as it “unfairly penalises minors who don’t vote”.

“While we think that the majority of young people would vote if the franchise was extended to 16-year-olds, a significant number wouldn’t and therefore would be issued a fine. If they don’t pay the fine, they would be put before the court and have to pay hundreds of dollars in court fees, $288 in court fees, and other lawyers’ fees on top of that,” he said.

“Many minors don’t have an income and the last thing that we want to do is to send a significant number of young people into the justice system for not voting.”

Minister Steel acknowledged that the Greens had “attempted” to address Labor’s concerns through their amendments to the bill, but he said there were still issues.

“While I appreciate [Andrew] Braddock and [Johnathan] Davis’s attempts to address the problem that the Labor Party has raised about penalising minors, the amendments instead create another problem: they undermine compulsory voting,” he said.

“A strong democracy depends on all citizens being able to participate equally. It’s why our nation has a deeply held principle of compulsory voting.”

Mr Steel said Labor was committed to encouraging young people to participate in democracy in other ways, including joining movements, political parties, unions and other organisations.

Deputy Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Hanson said “unusually”, he agreed with Mr Steel.

Mr Hanson said young people were subject to significant pressure and stress at this time of their lives.

“The problem is that political campaigns, and we’re seeing it with the Voice … can bring out the worst,” he said.

“We do not want people who are in that stage of life with those anxieties … to be further impacted by those sorts of debates and we don’t want them in the schoolyard.

“We shouldn’t be risking and exposing young people to additional burdens in what is already a difficult period of life.”

Mr Hanson questioned the Greens’ motive for the bill, saying “it’s pretty well understood why the Greens want to do this … they see this as an opportunity to increase the vote”.

“There’s nothing noble about what the Greens are doing today,” he said. “It’s exploitative, it puts younger people at potential risk of harm, and as a result the Canberra Liberals will not be supporting it.”

Greens MLA Emma Davidson slammed Labor and the Liberals for not supporting the proposed legislation.

“I thought maybe here in the ACT Labor might be a little more receptive to the idea … but it’s been made clear now that ACT Labor, just like their federal colleagues, are also opposed to lowering the voting age,” she said.

“Labor and Liberals, the old establishment parties, are going down with their two-party system ship. Meanwhile, we Greens are offering a life raft to a generation of young people who demand better because they deserve better.”

Mr Davis said the Assembly had had two years to consider the bill, which was first put forward in 2021, and yet Labor had not come up with a solution to the issues it had identified.

“The Labor Party’s platform says they’ll consider this reform. They’ve had two years to do so. We’re about to move to the detail stage of this debate. If you’ve got a better way to bring 16 and 17-year-olds the vote, now is your opportunity to tell us how you would do that,” he said.

“I suspect all 10 members of the Labor caucus have come very unprepared to this debate today and do not have an alternative approach, in contradiction to their own platform, in rejection of the hard work of other members of their governing coalition, who have brought a bill in good faith and given two years to work on it.”

He said the Greens “perhaps naively believed the Labor Party when they said they would engage us in good faith”.