Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Right now, young people are being screwed over. They're being disenfranchised from the democratic process. We have a policy that's focused on the next election, rather than the future of young people. They are, quite rightly, angry at their political leaders. When it comes to housing, the only thing that's growing faster than housing prices is the fact that most people know that they are getting royally screwed over right now. You have young people being told, 'Do well at school, thrive at university and get a job—that's the pathway to prosperity.' But these are people who are being locked out of the housing market. There is this rigged system where property investors are buying multiple properties because they get tax breaks. Of course that's something that impacts very directly on young people.

It's not just about home ownership, of course. When it comes to climate change and greenhouse pollution, we know that it's going to be future generations who are going to have to clean up the mess left by this government. It's about income inequality as well. When you look at work by the Grattan Institute, who have crunched the numbers on intergenerational inequality, you have baby boomers aged between 65 and 75 who are accruing wealth fastest—$200,000 more than that age group eight years earlier. While, if you are 25 to 35, you have been going backwards over the same period. So we've got this growing income inequality. We have complete inaction on climate change. We have young people being locked out of the housing market. We've had other reforms—for example, sniffer dogs at festivals. And the approach that's been taken in the space of digital rights means young people's online rights have been effectively taken away because of a narrow political agenda.

There are so many issues on which young people are being screwed over. Right now, if they are 16 or 17, they have no opportunity to participate in the democratic process by exercising the most precious thing that we get when we turn 18, and that is the right to vote. As Senator Rhiannon said earlier, this is something that's being reconsidered in other countries. We know that, if you are a young person in Australia, you can open a bank account, you pay taxes, you can marry, you can drive a vehicle, you can serve in the Defence Force and you're effectively independent. At the age of 16 and 17, you can do some or all of these things—yet the one thing that you can't do is vote. So we absolutely recommend this amendment to the Senate.

I have to say that it's very disappointing that the Labor Party right now are saying that they will vote against this amendment. In a speech by the opposition leader, he called for the voting age to be lowered to 16. He made that very, very explicit commitment. It was a speech to the New South Wales Young Labor conference in Sydney, where he said very explicitly that, if people aged 16 and 17 can drive, work, pay taxes, join the military and make their own choices about medical treatment, they should be allowed to vote. He said that very explicitly. Here's an opportunity to back up his own words by supporting this amendment. We would expect that the Labor Party would now join the Greens in giving young people a say in the decisions that are being made on their behalf, that are being made for them right now. I would have thought that, if this was an issue on which the opposition leader felt so strongly that he was prepared to make it the centrepiece of a speech to the Young Labor conference, the very least he would do is support an amendment that would allow it to happen. He didn't say at the time, 'We need to consult on this and determine whether this is an appropriate amendment to the Electoral Act.' What he said was that 16- and 17-year-olds should be given the right to vote. It was a very straightforward statement from the opposition leader, but it seems he's walking back from that by not supporting this amendment.

I commend this amendment to the Senate. I think it is absolutely relevant, given we've had a process with the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters looking at a range of issues around participation in democracy and, obviously, the nature of this bill. This bill goes to the issue of authorisation and other such matters which are relevant to the work of that committee—but so too is the fact that we have young people now who are being disenfranchised from the democratic process who need to be given a voice.