Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum related to the bill.

Leave granted.

I table an explanatory memorandum and seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated into the Hansard.

The speech read as fo llows—

Young people are engaged in politics. They speak in public, they attend rallies, they are union members, political party members, and they lobby their politicians. Allowing young people to vote would be a greatly motivating and empowering experience; it's time to lower the voting age to 16.

In 2019, the Australian Human Rights Commission found that people under the age of 18 feel they have no voice in society. The report found that young people were frustrated about their lack of ability to participate in politics and about social structures that diminish their agency.

As the youngest person ever elected to the Australian Senate, I have had the opportunity to work alongside so many young people. They've shared with me their experiences, I've heard their demands of successive governments, and I've sat in this chamber and seen that for far too long, Australian politics has failed to represent and take action on the issues they care about.

Young people have tirelessly asked the Australian Government to take actions that will improve their life; young people have led rallies to demand stronger climate action, they've asked time and time again for more mental health services to be available, for higher education to be made free again, and for politicians to change laws to so they will have confidence that they will have a secure roof over their head. They are still waiting for action.

What has been clear is that politicians are able to drag their feet because they know that young people's ability to express their dismay has little consequence to their power while they are denied their right to vote. The disenfranchisement of young people is considered convenient by too many, and it has to change.

Young people have been empowered to vote in places like Austria, Brazil and Scotland. Research has demonstrated that granting young people the right to vote has had a positive impact on the confidence of young people to feel that they can affect change.

In Scotland, during the independence referendum in 2014, a decision was made to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to participate for the first time. Almost 80 per cent of that age group turned out to vote. In 2022, the Supreme Court in New Zealand ruled that the voting age of 18 is discriminatory to young people.

When I was first elected to the Senate, I was the youngest person ever elected, and the only person under the age of 30. Now there are more young people, but nowhere near enough. It's time we recognised the enormous contribution that young people give to our society—included them in our decision-making and encourage more young people to get involved in the parliamentary decisions and processes that impact them.

We can do that by lowering the voting age to 16 in Australia. This bill would allow us to change the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 to lower the minimum age of a voter in Australian federal elections and referenda from 18 to 16 years of age while maintaining the compulsory voting requirement for 16- and 17-year-olds. The bill also adds being 16 or 17 years of age as a valid reason for failing to vote, which allows the Deputy Returning Officer to waive their fine for not voting.

Enabling 16- and 17-year-olds to vote will facilitate greater civics education and allow teachers to bring process—not party politics—into the classroom in a tangible way. It will foster a culture of civic participation amongst young people, leaving them in good stead for the rest of their lives and their active involvement in our democracy.

Finally, this bill seeks to update our electoral practices to ensure that if you're not yet on the roll but have the identification to prove you're entitled to cast a vote, you can still have your say. It's 2023, and we should have enough flexibility in our system to properly facilitate our compulsory voting process and allow people to enrol at a polling place, on the day of voting.

It's time to lower the voting age to 16 in Australia and show young people that we hear them, we care about their opinions, and we are working for their future.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.