Canberra high school students and Make it 16 members want ACT voting age to be 16

Last week, the ACT had the opportunity to extend a vote of confidence to its young people.

ACT Greens MLAs Andrew Braddock and Johnathon Davis brought forward the Electoral Amendment Bill 2021 which would extend voting rights in Territory elections to 16 and 17-year-olds.

As members of Make It 16, a youth-led, non-partisan campaign to lower the voting age, we spent months meeting with ACT MLAs across all sides of politics. We know that our representatives broadly agree that 16 and 17-year-olds in the ACT should be more involved in our democratic processes - in fact, ACT Labor's 2022-23 platform commits to "consider allowing people between 16 and 18 years of age to vote". We should point out that ACT Labor has been "considering" this since 2013 - a full decade ago.

Yet, last week a bill which would enfranchise the Territory's young people was voted down by ACT Labor along with the Canberra Liberals - no amendments were suggested by either party, despite two years having elapsed since the Bill was first introduced.

As young people, we are used to being ignored and talked down to. We are used to our elected representatives explaining all the many ways that they listen to us while not acting on the issues we care about. We are used to bearing the brunt of policies made by those who simply will not face the consequences of these decisions.

This is why Make It 16 is asking for something quite simple: to extend the democratic right to vote to 16 and 17-year-olds in the ACT to ensure that young people are not only heard, but counted.

As a country, we have done this before. From men without property, to women, to our First Nations people, to those aged 18 to 21 in the 1970s. We have a long and powerful history of enfranchisement, and this is the next step.

Almost a dozen countries have already lowered the voting age, with these countries showing clear benefits, including higher rates of political engagement, with young people learning more about their political systems earlier and turning up to vote even more than older age groups. This means that Australia is missing out, and falling behind.

Imagine if the ACT was the first jurisdiction in Australia to extend this vote of confidence to its young people?

The ACT Electoral Commission estimates that lowering the voting age would mean around 8000 16 and 17-year-olds would vote at a Territory election - that is 8000 young people who would be more engaged, more knowledgeable, and whose voices would be amplified directly to our elected representatives and hold them accountable for their decisions.

Surely Canberrans understand the value of this more than almost anywhere else.

In the ACT, we uniquely prepare our year 11 and 12 students for adulthood. Our 16 and 17-year-olds can leave campus, make decisions for themselves, and develop maturity and judgment in preparation for work and further education. Psychological and neurological evidence also indicates that the type of decision-making engaged in deciding who to vote for in elections (referred to as "cold cognition") is mature by age 16.

ACT Labor MLAs have publicly said that most young people will want to vote, that we would do so in a considered way, and that this would make our electoral system more representative - so why are our Territory's elected representatives so hesitant to take this step, and show the kind of leadership the ACT prides itself on?

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Young people already have "adult" responsibilities - we can drive, consent to medical procedures, leave school or home, pay rent and income tax, join the armed forces, and work full-time. During COVID, 16 and 17-year-olds were even among the frontline workers here in the ACT. Yet, we are denied a say on decisions which affect us. We say: if we are old enough to hold these responsibilities, we deserve the right to vote.

During the Black Summer bushfires, schools in the ACT considered closing due to debilitating air quality and heat, demonstrating the direct physical effect that climate change is having on young people, not to mention the mental health impacts. Despite the 15,000 young Canberrans who raised the alarm in the School Strike 4 Climate protests and despite countless rounds of youth consultations which have lobbied for real change, we find ourselves in the exact same place: three years on, we have officially reached a global boiling point and we are staring down the possibility of yet another catastrophic bushfire season.

Without the pressure of a vote, politicians can neglect the concerns and ideas of the ACT's young people without facing real consequences at the ballot box. With a Territory election on the horizon in 2024, 16 and 17-year-olds don't just want to be heard, we want to be formally counted - and our campaign is just getting started.

The ACT's next generation is going to be around for a long time - after all, as we keep being told, we are very young. We will remember who took us seriously when we do get to the ballot box - whenever that is.