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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-05-08 Daily Xml
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ELECTORAL (VOTING AGE) AMENDMENT BILL

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (10:53): 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) (10:53): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This is a reintroduction of a bill that I first introduced in 2006. I will seek leave at the conclusion of my remarks to insert the explanation of clauses. This is a very simple bill, which seeks to allow those who are 16 or 17 the option—I emphasise: the option—of enrolling to vote in state and council elections. Once they enrol, they are then required to vote. I have not been convinced of any need to abolish compulsory voting. Once people have enrolled, I think they should vote, and this does not in any way seek to undermine the current situation.

There are many young people in our community, not the majority but many, who would like to exercise the right to vote at state and council elections. If members do the mathematics they can appreciate that, given four-year terms, it is not all that radical a measure, because we are not having council elections for nearly three years, and we are all looking forward to our next state election, which is about two years away. Even if you enrolled, if this law was passed immediately—and nothing ever happens in this place immediately—it would eventually be proclaimed and the young person concerned would not then be voting for quite a while anyway.

However, over time it would allow those who wish to enrol to participate if they were of the age of 16 or 17. I know that the argument has been trotted out before: they are not allowed to drink until they are 18, so why should they vote? I do not believe that that is a compelling argument. If you look through our whole list of age requirements, you can vote, and you can be 40 but you are not entitled to an age pension. I think that argument is a red herring and a furphy. To involve yourself in the voting process is to have a say about most aspects of society. It is not just for local council elections.

In my experience in local government if young people, for example, are keen to have a facility for people in their age group, by the time the process starts and is completed you are looking at probably six, seven or eight years. That has been my experience with things like skate parks. Even if a teenager was keen to see something happen in their local council area, it would take many years before it ever eventuated. You can consult and listen as much as you like but, at the end of the day, unless you have a vote, you do not have any say at all. Anyone who argues that listening gives someone power has a very limited view. You do not have any power until you have a vote; you can determine the outcome.

The Labor Party allows people to join at the age of 14; the Liberal Party, 16; and other parties also allow teenagers to join. I recently spoke at a weekend conference involving talented and gifted children. They were talented and gifted, but I am not; I was just there to talk to them. I was very impressed with the grandson of one of our famous builders in Adelaide by the surname of Baulderstone.

This young lad, who was 11 or 12, knew more about politics than most people—I would say 99 per cent of people. He was very keen to be involved at the age of 11. I am not suggesting by any stretch of the imagination that we allow somebody of that age to vote. However, he was articulate, passionate, knew the issues, and he knew pretty well what is 'knowable'—if I can borrow from Rumsfeld—about members of this place; so, his knowledge was amazing. Most young people are not in that category, and I am not suggesting that they are, but this young Baulderstone boy was so keen to be involved.

That is not the reason for putting forward this bill, although it makes the point that there are many young people who would like to be involved. In fact, at the age that we are talking about—16, 17—those young people are paying taxes of one kind or another—certainly GST; they can join certain parts of the military, they can get a driver's licence, they can do a whole lot of things, yet they are not allowed to have any meaningful say in the community in terms of making decisions.

As I pointed out before, probably only—and I am guessing—10 per cent of the eligible age cohort would take up this option but, nevertheless, that is important. I am not suggesting putting forward this proposal because South Australia has been a leader in areas of electoral reform, but I think it is in keeping with our tradition. I do not know whether members realise, but we gave Aboriginal men—unfortunately, not women—the right to vote back in the 1850s. We gave Aboriginal women the right to vote in the 1890s. Sadly, those provisions were not allowed to continue after Federation because the other states were not as enlightened as South Australia in relation to allowing people of an indigenous background to vote.

We were also about the third place in the world to allow women to vote and, if not the first, we were certainly up with the leaders in terms of allowing women to stand for parliament. Also, in South Australia we developed the secret ballot, which we take for granted. It was developed by Commissioner Boothby, after whom the federal electorate is named. He developed the concept of a secret ballot because, prior to that, people were able to see who you were voting for. The Australian secret ballot voting system, as it became known, spread throughout the world.

Now, the Victorians (like they do in football) tried to beat us and got something into the parliament before we did, but the secret ballot was a South Australian creation. So it is a bit like the AFL: the reality does not always match what we are told.

As I have said, I believe this measure has merit. If it is passed it would not be taken up as an option by many young people, but it will focus the attention of teenagers on the democratic process and will give a lot more meaning to any participation in which they may be interested. I would like to put the question around the other way: rather than ask why they should vote, ask why they should not.

Other jurisdictions have introduced this, including the Isle of Man, which I visited two years ago as part of the CPA 'educational program'. They introduced the provision and, to my knowledge, the Isle of Man has not been struck by lightning or subjected to earthquakes or famine as a result of allowing 16 and 17 year olds to enrol. I come back to the point I made at the start: even if this measure goes through, there will not be a stampede of people that age participating simply because of the mathematics of the four-year term.

So, in many ways it is a very modest and conservative measure, and I think it fits in with what the major parties already do in terms of allowing even younger people to join their party and participate. I believe the more young people who can be encouraged to be actively involved in politics in a creative way, the better. I commend to bill to the house, and seek leave to have the explanation of clauses inserted in Hansard without my reading it.

Leave granted.

Explanation of Clauses

Part 1—Preliminary

1—Short title

2—Commencement

3—Amendment provisions

These clauses are formal.

Part 2—Amendment of Electoral Act 1985

4—Amendment of section 4—Interpretation

This clause alters the definition of elector to reflect clauses 5 and 6.

5—Amendment of section 29—Entitlement to enrolment

This clause lowers the age of entitlement to enrolment from 18 years to 16 years and lowers the age for provisional enrolment from 17 years to 15 years.

6—Amendment of section 69—Entitlement to vote

This clause lowers the age of entitlement to vote for an enrolled person from 18 years to 16 years.

Schedule 1—Related amendments

Part 1—Related amendment to Juries Act 1927

1—Amendment of section 11—Qualification of jurors

This clause ensures that the amendments to the Electoral Act 1985 will not affect the Juries Act 1927 (so that jurors will still need to be 18 years or over).

Part 2—Related amendment to Local Government (Elections) Act 1999

2—Amendment of section 14—Qualifications for enrolment

This clause amends the Local Government (Elections) Act 1999 to allow persons aged 16 and over to vote in Local Government elections.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mrs Geraghty.

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