Deb Foskey calls for 16 yr olds to vote

In this country, you have to vote, irrespective of whether you want to or not.

If it was made non-compulsory for 16yos – so they could if they wanted to – then it would also open up another can of worms.

Some 16 year olds are mature/interested enough to vote. Most aren’t – I’m sure I wasn’t. I actually voted for the Sun Ripened Warm Tomato Party the first time I got to vote – as my Dad loves to remind me. Some 18 years olds aren’t either – but you’ve got to start sometime.

I agree with everything nyssa76 said.

Hey – I’d forgotten that as well. Maybe we should let the little blighters vote….

Bahahahahaha!

16 and 17 year olds generally don’t contribute enough to society to be entitled to be represented at a local or federal level. The vast majority of 16 and 17 year olds are still dependants, living at home, going to school. If they work it’s only part time and will generally fall below the tax free threshold. They would make up only five to eight percent of road users and as such wouldn’t give a damn about anything that didn’t affect them personally.

I’m not saying that there aren’t exceptions to this rule or that there aren’t exceptionally clever 16 and 17 year olds – but 18 makes sense because that is when (roughly) society tells us you start contributing to society as opposed to draining it.

So why should the 16 and 17 get the vote? Becasue some of them are clever? Becasue some 18 and 19 year olds aren’t? There is no logic in that argument – that begets the train of thought that you should have to sit a basic IQ test in order to be allowed to vote. Very ‘brave new world’.

I thought the proposal would be that 16 year olds have the choice to vote. If they feel the desire they can enrol and have they say. If they can’t be assed then they can continue to live in ignorant bliss without penalty.

Face it, it’s the only real way the Greens are ever going to get to branch stack so through the baby their bottle and move onto more important issues.

white, male, 16, no mortgage, skateboard.

I’m with you JM. I would have loved to have voted when I was 16. Too bad there was no election that year.
Any 16 or 17 year olds read this site? It seems to me that it’s your opinion that matters.

If I asked my students tomorrow about this – which I wouldn’t as it is shite to begin with – they would all bitch and moan about having to do it.

16yo’s don’t give a shit about politics or having the right to vote – neither do most 18yos.

The only reason it was given to 18yos was because they were old enough to die for this country, but not old enough to vote (21yo).

Why doesn’t Deb Foskey focus on the “real” issues – education, health and police?

You’ll find that most 16 year olds don’t really give a shit. Why make them do something that they don’t need to? They would simply do what I did when I turned 18… Einee – Meenie – Miny – Moe…