ELECTORAL (VOTING AGE) AMENDMENT BILL

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (10:50): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Electoral Act 1985 and to make related amendments to the Juries Act 1927 and the Local Government (Elections) Act 1999. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (10:51): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Once again, this is a reintroduction of a bill that I put to this house on 8 May this year. In simple terms (and I do not need to take the time of the house to go into great detail), it allows for the option of 16 and 17 year olds to enrol to vote in council or state government elections.

The youth sector (if I can say that) and young people have been very supportive, but some unfortunate comments have been made by people who, in my view, should know better. One councillor is on the public record as saying that we should not give young people a vote because their hormones are raging. Well, good luck to them! I do not know whether mine rage: I think mine are more considered now in what they do.

I thought that was a very silly comment, and it was even more outrageous because it came from a female councillor who should know better. That is the sort of nonsense that was put forward years ago to deny women a role in public affairs—women could not fly aircraft, and so on. It is absolute nonsense. I was very disappointed when that councillor came out and said that we cannot let young people participate because they have raging hormones. It is a silly comment.

Other people in local government have made more sensible comments. The Mayor of the City of Norwood Payneham and St Peters said it would be good if it also applied to federal elections. I cannot put forward any legislation in that regard; I can only put forward what is within the ambit of this parliament.

We are talking about, at most, possibly five or 10 per cent of the eligible age group enrolling. The argument that there are young people who are 16 or 17 who are not able to articulate and do not understand what is happening in their local area or at the state level is quite silly. Under our current law, a person can vote if they have dementia—in fact, there are probably quite a few people with dementia who do vote. There are people in their 40s, 50s and 60s who vote and who do not know what they are doing. One has only to look at the so-called donkey vote or informal vote to know that there are lot of people who do not know what they are doing.

To suggest that all young people of the age of 16 or 17 are incapable of making a considered judgment about participating in the democratic system is ridiculous. I cannot understand why you would want to deny someone an opportunity to participate. We are not going below the age of 16; even though I have met 12 year olds who know more about politics than probably most people in the community, we are not going below 16.

Why would you want to deny someone the opportunity to have a say? Council elections are the ideal opportunity for young people to have a say. They do not come around very often, so we are not talking about an election feast where people are voting frequently. Under this proposal, most young people would not get the opportunity to cast a vote for several years, anyway. The world is not going to end. This week I received a letter from some young people in my electorate saying that they would like more consideration in relation to what they call 'jumps', where they can jump with their skateboards, ride their bikes, and so on, which illustrates the point that, at the moment, young people are not effectively heard.

Young people are largely lepers in our society, because a lot of older people ignore them and a lot of shopping centres disregard them and do not want them (unless they are spending money, then they welcome them). Young people often are not valued in our community as young people. We see that when people say, 'What are you going to do when you get older,' as if you are not doing anything worthwhile now; 'What are you going to do when you grow up? What are you going to do when you leave school?' as if at school, university or TAFE you are not doing anything, you are wasting time. It is a silly view. If you are 16 and 17 those years are as important as any other years in your life.

We should not devalue young people. Most of our young people are absolutely fantastic, and we should be trying to bring back the 6 per cent or so who get into trouble with the police onto the straight and narrow and engage them and involve them. One of my hobbyhorses with young people is that we do not have enough activities and facilities for them. Sure, we have sporting clubs. I notice that one Supreme Court justice (I think that is the level of that judge) said recently that young people should be involved in sport, and I could not agree more. The more they are involved in sport the less likely they are to get into strife.

But if you are a teenager you really do not have any say in the process. Some councils have youth councils, as they call them, or youth committees, but unless you have a vote you have no real clout in political terms, and it is the same at state level. You can use the argument that young people will vote the way their parents do. I think that if people are honest in here they would say that, in the main, they probably vote along similar lines to what their parents probably voted, but that generalisation is fraught with danger. The sort of young person who wants to vote and applies to vote is not likely to be the sort of young person who will simply be a puppet of their parents.

This type of approach I am advocating here works in Germany in its council elections. I do not think that Germany has disappeared. The last I heard, Germany was still there; it had not fallen into ruin. The Isle of Man gives a full voting franchise to 16 and 17 year olds. It is one of the most prosperous areas in Europe; it has the highest standard of living and fantastic facilities.

Mr Hanna: The tax laws help.

The Hon. R.B. SUCH: It is a great place. Yes. The member for Mitchell says that the tax laws help.

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The Hon. R.B. SUCH: And our biker friend, the member for Heysen—

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The Hon. R.B. SUCH: —I said 'biker', not 'bikie'—says that the motor race helps. But it is a very progressive province. It would regard itself as independent—and it is—within the general framework of the United Kingdom. It is a very progressive place. I mean, it is so progressive that it has three houses of parliament: it has a lower house and an upper house and then it combines, which is what we do when we have our committee stage, I guess, or when we have a disagreement between houses, that is, the conference of the houses. The Isle of Man is prospering; it is doing fantastically well. You can go through the list. There are other places that allow 16 year olds to vote in council elections: Austria, Brazil, Guernsey and Jersey. I do not know what the affinity is with dairy cattle and young people, but there must be a connection there because they allow young people to have a say.

This is a very simple, reasonable request. It is optional: they are not compelled to enrol; if they enrol they vote. They should be able to have a say at state and council elections. It will provide a sense of engagement. It reflects what the major parties do now, because at that age people can join the Liberal Party or Labor Party anyway, so why say, 'You can join the party and have a say, but you cannot vote at council or state elections'? It does not make sense. We in this state have led on electoral reform. We were a bit slow giving women the vote—about third in the world! We were one of the first, if not the first, to give women the right to stand for parliament. We gave Aboriginal men the right to vote in 1846 and took it off them because of the other states in 1901 or 1902. We gave Aboriginal women the right to vote in 1897, the same as for European women, and we invented the secret ballot, which was pinched by those people across the border who also pinch our water, and they implemented it before us.

We have been a leader in these matters. I want to see young people given the opportunity to enrol and have a say. The world will not end, but it helps make our democracy even stronger and more effective. Let us recognise those young people who want to participate, and let them have a say in an election, which does not happen very often, anyway—usually on a four-year cycle—so we are not talking about some huge burden. A silly comment from someone was that it would use up more paper. We use more paper sending out tickets and expiation notices and other things involving misbehaviour than we would ever use on something like this. Let us get our young people involved in a constructive way and give them the opportunity to have a say. I commend the bill to the house.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mrs Geraghty.