Make It 16 Welcomes Labour’s Support For 16 And 17 Year-Olds Voting At Local Elections
Make It 16, the youth-led, non-partisan campaign to extend voting rights to 16 and 17-year-olds, is stoked to see Labour’s announcement today on the voting age.
“Following our 2022 Supreme Court win, the last Labour-led Government introduced legislation to extend voting rights to 16 and 17-year-olds for local elections” says 17-year-old Jamin Fountain, Make It 16 Co-Director, “unfortunately that law only got First Reading before the 2023 General Election”.
“It is fantastic that Labour have committed to strengthening New Zealand’s democracy by re-introducing their Bill to Parliament if they form government. We call on a Labour-led government to prioritise making this change in time for the 2028 local elections.”
Make It 16 also acknowledges the support of other parties for lowering the voting age. The Green Party and Te Pāti Māori joined Labour in 2023 voting in support of the First Reading of the Electoral (Lowering Voting Age for Local Elections and Polls) Legislation Bill.
“We have been working hard this year and building momentum and Labour’s announcement gives us even more momentum as we go head first into the upcoming election. We now call on the rest of Aotearoa’s political parties to follow suit and recognise the Supreme Court’s ruling that the current voting age is an unjustified breach of New Zealand’s Bill of Rights. Votes at 16 will strengthen our democracy not only for our rangatahi, but for everyone.”
“Ideally all parties would support lowering the voting age for both local and general elections. Because you currently need 75% support of Parliament to change the voting age at general elections, we understand the reason for Labour’s announcement being confined to local elections at this time.”
“In Scotland, once people saw votes at 16 in practice during the independence referendum all Scottish political parties voted in favour of expanding the right to other elections. We strongly believe that once New Zealanders see the positive impact of 16 and 17 year-olds voting in local elections, we will get consensus for general elections too”.
