Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

It is so good to know that the proposal to increase the voting age to 21 isn't One Nation policy; it's just Pauline Hanson's personal opinion—personal opinion that is completely out of touch, however, as are almost all of the rest of One Nation's policies when it comes to the interests of young people.

This proposal to increase the voting age to 21 takes us back a very long time. The Australian voting age was reduced to 18 in 1973. That was 44 years ago. Attitudes and our whole way of life have changed so significantly since 1973. Of course, 1973 was the first year of the Whitlam government, after 23 years of conservative rule—conservative rule, I think, that Pauline Hanson's policies would have been more consistent with. In the US, it was the time of the Watergate scandal—that corrupt politician was that long ago. It was the year that the last episode of Laugh In was produced—a show which had that memorable line, 'Very interesting, but stupid', and I think that sums up Pauline Hanson's proposal to increase the voting age to 21. It's not surprising that Senator Hanson wants to discriminate against and disenfranchise a million young Australians. It's consistent with the intolerance and discrimination that One Nation shows every day in this parliament towards people that don't agree with them.

It's absolutely right that young people do not support the hurtful, bigoted, simplistic, racist policies of One Nation. They are sick of being screwed over. They want people to be treated fairly and equitably. Young people want to have a fair go for all. In particular, people between the ages of 18 and 21—or even people between the ages of 16 and 18, who the Greens think should be able to vote—have a view of an Australia that is so different to the view of Australia that One Nation have. I'm not just making this up. There was a survey that was done by Youth Action and the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth shortly before the 2016 election. It surveyed 3,400 12- to 25-year-olds to ask them what was important for them and what policy outcomes they would like to see out of the 2016 election. Not surprisingly, it is a list of policy proposals that are light-years away from and absolutely diametrically opposed to the policy positions of One Nation.

Young people that were surveyed wanted to see high-quality education. They wanted to see increasing funding to education, increasing access to education and more funding and more resources for local unis and TAFEs. One Nation's low-tax, small-government policies would decimate education. Young people wanted to see better access to health services, including better access to mental health and dental health, and that means giving our health services the resources to be able to fund these programs that are so essential for young people. Young people wanted urgent action on the environment and urgent action on global warming, unlike the troglodytes of One Nation, who even refuse to acknowledge that global warming is real and is based in science. These young people are way past that. They know that it's real and that it is their futures that are at stake. They don't want to see the Adani coalmine opened. They want to see action. They want to see us transition to 100 per cent renewable energy. They're the sorts of policies and actions that young people want, and these are the people that Pauline Hanson would disenfranchise. One person said, 'I will inherit this earth, then my children after me, their children after them, and so it continues. I don't want my kids to inherit a wasteland, or to have to ask what stars, rhinos and forests look like because some power-hungry politicians couldn't get their priorities straight. They need to stop playing the game.'

Finally, the particular thing that young people said was a priority for them was social justice, with marriage equality right at the top of the agenda, as well as support for people seeking asylum and Aboriginal rights. One person was quoted as saying, 'I'm gay and trans and very rarely feel safe, and I hope that one day I will.' With the policies of the Greens, they will; with the policies of One Nation, that day would be a very long way away. (Time expired)