Prime Minister Chris Hipkins abandons plan for legislation to lower voting age for general elections
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has taken the axe to former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s plan to introduce legislation to bring the voting age down to 16 at general elections.
However, the Government will now focus on lowering the age for local body elections with legislation intended to be introduced this term. It would be considered by the next Parliament.
As Chippy does the flippy on climate change, 16 year olds are being told they can’t vote (despite being impacted by his climate change policy bonfire), but Labour will allow 16 year olds to vote in the rigged Auckland Mayoralty elections.
Yay?
We are such a nation of cheap arseholes that we subcontract our election obligations to a private company who have a vested interest in low turn outs because that’s cheaper!
It’s this element of the local elections being run by a private company that highlight how rigged the local election system is.
In Auckland there were barely a dozen polling booths where you could cast a special vote if you weren’t enrolled. Many poor people and renters bounce from house to house to house and their instability makes it difficult to update election details to vote.
12 booths for a city with 1.2million.
That is the sort of voter suppression that would make the Republicans blush.
Bernard Hickey over at the Kākā highlights how the poor in Auckland don’t vote…
The Democratic Deficit of young, poor renters
Previous analysis of local turnout rates in Auckland from the 2016 election found a close connection between deprivation scores, home ownership rates and voting rates. Those in the richest neighbourhoods with the highest percentage of home owners voted the most, while those in the poorest with the lowest home ownership rates voted at the lowest rates.
Turnout rates in council elections are even lower than in general elections, as are enrollment rates. Overall enrolments nationwide have slumped for young cohorts over the last 20 years. Local Government participation has been falling in recent years, even relative to general election turnout.
Home ownership is also a key indicator of voting in local elections, with those councils with high ownership rates having the highest voting rates. The biggest ‘blob’ of low home ownership and low turnout in the chart below is Auckland.
…pretending that a private company with a vested interest in low turn out to limit the cost via a postal system that structurally punishes the poor is not a system you can pretend is fair.
The only solution is to take the contract off the private company and get the Electoral Commission to run the same level of engagement they generate for the national elections.
We need one day of voting with the same intensity of polling booths with a 2 week early vote window.
That would cost money, and because NZ is such a cheap arse nation, that’s the only real issue here.
There is no point giving 16 year olds the right to vote in Auckland’s local elections when that election is built upon voter suppression.
16 yr olds shouldn’t be voting in ANY elections, general or local. 16 yr olds know a lot less than they think they do, and their brains are nowhere near mature.
So no different than most adults.
Too right! Sinic.
The left only want 16 year old’s the vote as they know they will vote ideologically and vote for the green party and its idiot MPs.
We probably shouldn’t be surprised they have dumped lowering the voting age. Young voters support Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn, and Wall Street couldn’t possibly allow those votes to be counted.
The reason people aren’t voting in local elections is the bought-off city council politicians don’t actually deliver anything. The infrastructure is collapsing and everything looks dilapidated.
In Christchurch, the council has taken over ten years just to rebuild one stadium — which will now be too small and not fit for purpose. They can’t even be bothered rebuilding the second one.
Give 16 year olds something to for vote for, and they will vote…simple
Make it 16 at general elections. Court has already ruled status quo is illegal.
labour are gambling children will be on their side but like immigrants giving lollies doesn’t gaurantee votes
GenZ are dumb. Can’t do anything for themselves but expect to have everything now.
Patient and maturity are valuable commodities that they don’t have at 16.
Don’t get triggered like a 16 year old.
If we were to have a referendum asking if we should be lowering the voting age to 16, while we’re at it can we also ask,
1. Should it remain the same
2. Should it be raised
Fairs fair.
#makeit21
I like your thinking BG.
It seems somewhat more than ironic that the case is being argued for 16yo to have the vote at the same time as the judiciary is accepting arguments for reductions in criminal responsibility & sentencing on the basis that juvenile brains don’t fully develop until 25.
The Emperors New Clothes fashionistas again. With a fine eye for style and intent.
Well, that’s another logical, easy to understand credible response from you…
Having sixteen year olds voting is so discriminating….especially in this age of equality and fairness….what about the fifteen year old kids….Do they not have a say as well….
My 4 year old wants to vote. What about his human rights?
Ask his solo mother?
You spell out the heart of a matter Martyn. And if there isn’t a heart to find, you report that. This is a sort of Lost and Found column; and to keep us balanced we must report what we Find that’s good! We need to find the true gold using our BS detectors and acute observation, people with metal detectors are divagates (great word – a new sort of ‘-gate’).
This doesn’t mince words beyond recognition I believe –
We are such a nation of cheap arseholes that we subcontract our election obligations to a private company who have a vested interest in low turn outs because that’s cheaper!
STOP ROOTING DEMOCRACY OK!