Voting at 16 (1 Viewer)

[bmxgurl25]

What does everyone think of 16 year olds voting in australia?

 

[Omium]

What does everyone think of 16 year olds voting in australia?

I wanted to vote last year but i was only 17

 

[Captain Gh3y]

you have to set an arbitrary age at which you can assume people know enough about the world to vote and i think 18 is a better age than 16 for that, BUT

if it helps reduce the power that ultra-conservative ultra-prudish old people have in Australia (really quite a lot, and thanks to modern medicine they won't die for a while yet) then i'd be for it

 

[breaking]

I wanted to vote last year but i was only 17

good. the last thing this country needs is more islamic voters.

 

[Captain Gh3y]

good. the last thing this country needs is more islamic voters.

lol

 

[Iron]

Maybe if you’re living independently, working and paying taxes.
Or maybe if you pass a rigorous and humiliating AEC test yet to be devised.

 

[iamsickofyear12]

I don't see the harm in letting 16 and 17 year olds vote. Elections are already decided by a bunch of complete morons with no idea what they are doing... letting a few more clueless teenagers join in won't change anything.

 

[Trampoline Man]

Yeah, because what we need is to give the vote to those juvenile pseudo-intellectuals who claim to support some utopian ideology without reading beyond the back covers of the road to serfdom or the communist manifesto.

 

[Omium]

good. the last thing this country needs is more islamic voters.

i lol'd (Im serz)
I would have actually voted for Rudd.

 

[Trampoline Man]

Hey man Road to Serfdom is a fantastic analysis of the situations precluding nationalism and a Nazi-esque governmental situation.

The Communist Manifesto is a watered down version of Das Kapital (Das Kapital being a fine book).

Yes, that's why I included the "not reading past the back cover" part, substitutable with "reading the wikipedia article on it".

 

[Captain Gh3y]

You shouldn't be allowed to vote until you can analyse every current issue at a competent third-year uni student level, from both a Marxist and a Feminist perspective.

 

[Truthbynumbers]

You shouldn't be allowed to vote until you can analyse every current issue at a competent third-year uni student level, from both a Marxist and a Feminist perspective.

Well, maybe our HSC advanced English courses will finally be worth something.

I wanted to vote last year but i was only 17.

Join the club. There are so many young people in that situation who may have genuinely had an opinion and understood the issues, but were not allowed to vote. But think about all the other people in your year at school... do you really want to live in a world where THOSE people have an impact on the world around them?

Personally, I couldn't have cared less about out countries politics until I was about 17 and started reading the herald for articles for Economics and Legal Studies. Even now at uni there are people who say outright they don’t care about politics in their mid-20's. Letting 16 year olds vote can only make Aussie politics worse - I don’t think most 16 year olds are disillusioned enough with politics to realise when pollies are full of crap.

I.e. Always.

But regardless of that, I am in favour of compulsory voting. The only way democracy can retain even a shred of credibility is if it represents the views of the entire Australian people. If anything, maybe raising the voting age would be appropriate. Though I do like the sound of Iron's proposed AEC test. Take it at 16, if you can name the electorate you are in, the candidates for your electorate, know what an independent is, and can name the current federal and state opposition leaders, and one political party other than Labor, Liberal, National, and Green, you get to vote at 16. If not, then tough luck, wait until you know something about the world around you before you try and change it.

Can we trust 16 year olds who don’t pay mortgages to make decisions on interest rates, or don’t have a job to decide on which IR policy they like best? When so many 16 year olds think "School is gay" and plan to leave at year 10, do we want them voting on education policy?

And worse yet, imagine how far the pollies would be willing to go to tap into this new source of votes...

***2011 election update***
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd insists on being referred to in parliament as "K-Dogg", takes up smoking, and announces that if re elected he will ban homework. Opposition leader (Turnbull/Costello/Pikachu/Anyone but Nelson) responds with the new "Pay students to go to school" policy, and declares sk8boarding to be "Fully Sik".

**** 2011 Election Result***
In a resounding victory, Chris Lilley of the "Fuck the Police" and "Timberlake fan club" Coalition declared new Prime Minister of Australia, as was predicted by political analysts months ago based on the number of Friends each party leader had on Facebook. K-Dogg begins Rap career in preparation for next election, and begins performing at high schools.

 

[iamsickofyear12]

Can we trust 16 year olds who don’t pay mortgages to make decisions on interest rates, or don’t have a job to decide on which IR policy they like best? When so many 16 year olds think "School is gay" and plan to leave at year 10, do we want them voting on education policy?

We can't trust 80% of adults to vote on those issues, but we still let them.

 

[Truthbynumbers]

We can't trust 80% of adults to vote on those issues, but we still let them.

But at least most adults are at least educated about these issues to the extent where they can determine whether it affects their ability to buy booze and cigarettes.

 

[Captain Gh3y]

I'm yet to read a downside that would outweigh this:

if it helps reduce the power that ultra-conservative ultra-prudish old people have in Australia (really quite a lot, and thanks to modern medicine they won't die for a while yet) then i'd be for it

 

[The Hippy]

i would not trust some of the 16 year olds that i know to vote upon the future of Australia. Insufficient knowledge about important issues, is the reason for my mistrust.

 

[spiny norman]

I think perhaps bringing in voluntary voting for people aged 16-18 is an idea, so that those who do have some opinion on politics are given the opportunity to vote if they so want.

 

[decypher]

But at least most adults are at least educated about these issues to the extent where they can determine whether it affects their ability to buy booze and cigarettes.

Older =/= more educated, worldly, intelligent etc.

 

[jcurry]

I think perhaps bringing in voluntary voting for people aged 16-18 is an idea, so that those who do have some opinion on politics are given the opportunity to vote if they so want.

i second that, i know plenty of people under 18 who have much more of an idea about politics than more than a few adults

 

[ajdlinux]

I think the idea of a test can be taken even further.

We need to develop a Maturity Quotient test. It would be taken initially at the age of 10, then 15, 20, 25 and 30, then every 10 years then after.

The result of your MQ test would be used to determine your eligibility to vote, get a drivers licence, get married, leave school, and so on. Hopefully it would eliminate donkey voters and crazy P-platers.

Now to write the test...

===

Personally I'd love to vote. I'm not even 16 yet, and I sure would make a more informed vote than a lot of people I know. The problem is that there are a lot of 16 year olds who don't care.

(FTR, my vote would have gone Labor.)