Submitted 15 hours ago by MHLoppy@fedia.io to australianpolitics@aussie.zone
The UK wants to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in the next general election in 2029. 5 experts give their verdicts on if Australia should do the same.
I’d quite like to see the voting age lowered to 16. I’d lean towards it being made compulsory over allowing voluntary voting in Australia.
As the one expert mentioned we could use some more education on voting in the curriculum to help prepare students for it. Teaching them how prefferential voting works, how to research candidates, etc.
Compulsory voting (along with preferential voting, a proportional senate and a permanent, nonpartisan electoral commission) is one of the success stories of Australian democracy. (Making showing up to vote — or formally lodging a reasonable excuse — compulsory makes declining to vote a deliberate act, and prevents anyone from winning merely by riling up a base of hardliners and counting on apathy on the other side, as happens often in the US.) Ditching it would be a retrograde step for Australian democracy.
Ditching it would be a retrograde step for Australian democracy.
I don’t think anybody is suggesting ditching it. Just not implementing it for 16 and 17 year-olds.
compulsory makes declining to vote a deliberate act
As I’ve said before to many people, the only compulsory action required of you is to show up, get your name ticked off the electoral roll and put your ballots in the boxes.
US here, I’d love compulsory voting… and preferential voting.
Nath@aussie.zone 10 hours ago
It rankled with me when I was 15-17 that I had to pay income tax as a kid making ~$70-$90 per day. My paltry income would be doing nothing for Mr tax man, but that money would be much better given to me on payday. I think I would have signed up to vote and get a say in how it was spent. But there are also a lot of 16 year old morons who would act in predictable ways if forced to vote.
Maybe introduce it as optional until you are 18? And then it goes compulsory.