Isabelle Calder and Amelia Condon-Cernovs are 16. They are legally able to drive, to leave school, to work full-time, to pay taxes, to care for family members, to consent to medical procedures, to enlist in the Australian Defence Force, to become parents, and even to marry.

But they cannot vote – unlike teenagers in Europe, Latin America, or Asia.

“As someone who is nearing the end of Year 12 and looking towards my future, it can feel incredibly disheartening to experience the consequences of policy decisions that my generation has had no part in deciding,” Isabelle said.

“Every day, 16- and 17-year-olds are experiencing the direct result of our ACT politicians’ decisions, whether that’s from the public transport system, where young people are the biggest users; whether that’s urbanisation of our city; whether that’s getting a parking fine. 16- to 17-year-olds are experiencing day-to-day problems which are dictated by politicians’ responses …

“They don’t think they have to listen to us because we aren’t voting for them, and they think they can ignore us, which is unfair. Young people experience the same issues as anyone else – most notably climate change, housing prices, and educational costs.”

Both are members of Make It 16, a national campaign to lower the voting age.

“Lowering the voting age is really important to me because I consider myself to be a climate activist,” Amelia said. “With the climate crisis already reaching a point of ‘global boiling’, we are struggling to see a future in which younger generations will be surviving and thriving. So lowering the voting age means we can vote as young people on policies that are progressive and will drastically save our climate immediately.”

“Young people now more than ever are engaged in politics through campaigns and protests, and have proven that we are ready and deserving of this responsibility,” Isabelle said.

Greens’ bill to lower voting age fails

Yesterday, ACT Labor and the Canberra Liberals denied them that responsibility, turning down a long-standing ACT Greens motion in the Legislative Assembly to lower the voting age.

According to Labor, the bill would expose young people to the justice system if they failed to vote, while the Greens’ proposed amendments would undermine the “fundamental democratic principle” of compulsory voting.

The Greens, however, say that Labor’s failure to suggest any amendments shows they did not take the motion seriously – despite a promise on their policy platform to consider the issue.

“Today, Labor have denied 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote,” one of the bill’s proponents, Andrew Braddock MLA, Greens spokesperson for democracy, said. “We have addressed every objection they had, and yet they’ve decided young people do not deserve to have a voice in our democracy.”

In December 2021, Mr Braddock and Johnathan Davis MLA, Greens spokesperson for young people, introduced the Electoral Amendment Bill 2021, which sought to amend the Electoral Act 1992 by lowering the voting age for territory elections from 18 to 16.

“At age 16, we’ve made decisions as a community about the things that you are able to do,” Mr Davis said.

“We’ve decided that you can work and contribute to our economy. We’ve decided we can take some of your wages in the form of taxes to fund government services that you use. We’ve decided that you can consent to your own medical procedures. We’ve decided that you can consent to sex. We’ve decided that you can get a driver’s licence, and, if poorly used, operate a deadly weapon in the form of a motor vehicle. I can’t see any good reason why 16- and 17-year-olds are able to do all of those things, but they’re not able to decide the 25 people who sit in [the Legislative Assembly] …

“The ACT Greens don’t think that’s good enough,” he said.

“The ACT Greens want to empower the next generation of young Canberrans to be involved in the decision-making process that will impact their lives now and disproportionately impact their lives into the future. Young people have a strong voice. Young people deserve a say in the people who sit in this building [the Legislative Assembly]. Young people deserve the vote.”

This was the fourth time the ACT Greens had introduced a motion to lower the voting age; motions in 1996, 2006, and 2016 had all been defeated. Meanwhile, the Federal Greens are calling for the voting age to be lowered nationally.

Around the world, 16- and 17-year-olds can vote in Europe (Austria, Bosnia, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Malta, Norway, Switzerland); Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua); parts of the United Kingdom (Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, Guernsey, Jersey); and Asia (East Timor, Indonesia) and the Middle East (Israel). New Zealand is considering lowering the voting age to 16.

Allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to vote aligned with the International Covenant on Civic and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and was supported by the Human Rights Law Centre and the Australian Human Rights Commission, Attorney-General (and ACT Greens leader) Shane Rattenbury MLA noted.

ACT Labor itself, in a 2013 submission to an expert reference group on the size of the Legislative Assembly, had committed to “support compulsory voting and consider allowing people between 16 and 18 years of age to vote”, Mr Davis said.

“ACT Labor’s inability to support this bill today shows this was not reform that was ever genuinely taken seriously by their caucus, that the engagement of 16- and 17-year-olds in our democratic institutions and in the vote was never a genuine consideration of ACT Labor,” Mr Davis said.

Labor: Bill penalises minors

The bill was referred to the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety, which recommended in February 2022 that the Legislative Assembly not pass the bill.

This was despite 11 of 18 submissions to the inquiry favouring lowering the voting age; only five submissions were concerned. Similarly, 58 per cent of survey respondents thought 16- to 17-year-olds should be able to vote in territory elections; 40 per cent thought they should not. Only 6 per cent of respondents were younger than 18, and 14 per cent were aged between 18 and 25.

The Committee’s report stated that the bill could subject people under 18 who had failed to vote to criminal proceedings and penalties. The Greens had included mandatory fines for 16- and 17-year-olds who failed to vote: $40 for failing to enrol or to vote, or a $10 default notice penalty – half the penalty for adults. (Teenagers could already be fined $60 for littering, $75 for putting their feet on bus seats, or $125 for parking in school zones.) Exempting or waiving penalties might create perceptions of inconsistency and inequality, undermining respect for the electoral process.

Mandatory voting might also affect the mental health and wellbeing of young people unwilling or unable to engage with the political process.

Chris Steel MLA, Special Minister for State, said yesterday that the bill in its original form unfairly penalised minors who did not vote. The countries where the voting age had been lowered to 16 were all places where voting was voluntary, not compulsory. If the franchise was extended to 16-year-olds, he expected that a significant proportion would not vote, and would be issued a fine. If they did not pay it, they would be brought before the court, and have to pay at least $288 in court fees and other lawyers’ fees.

“Many minors don’t have an income, and the last thing we want to do is send large numbers of young people into the justice system for not voting,” Mr Steel said. “More young people in the justice system is an inevitable consequence of the bill as introduced and why we can’t agree to it in principle.”

Green amendments: Educational warnings

In response to the report’s findings, Mr Braddock and Mr Davis had amended their bill to replace mandatory fines with warnings from the ACT Electoral Commission for first-time voters who failed to vote. Those first-time voters (or New Electors) now included both people who had come of age, and newly conferred Australian citizens. (There were already two “valid and sufficient” reasons for failing to vote, Mr Braddock noted: religious exemptions, or an appeal to the Electoral Commissioner.)

“This way, we’re engaging and educating them as to their responsibilities, which is shown to be more effective in the long-term to improve compliance,” Mr Braddock said.

“The duty to vote will continue to exist, but we are accepting that someone who messes up on their first time around deserves the benefit of the doubt. They deserve an educational response rather than an automatic punitive one.”

Those amendments were made based on two years of consultation with Make It 16 Australia, Run For It, the Foundation for Young Australians, and the Youth Coalition of the ACT, “to make sure that we were setting in place a new warning system that didn’t unfairly penalise young people while maintaining the compulsory nature of the vote,” Mr Davis said.

Having been told that Labor was open to considering the bill, but that it was important to maintain the compulsory nature of the vote, the ACT Greens even reformed their platform to maintain compulsory voting and “try and build consensus”. (Since 1996, the Greens had advocated for voluntary voting for 16- and 17-year-olds.)

“Compulsory voting is preserved – and people under the age of 18 who mess up will not be burdened with a fine or the risk of a summons before the magistrate,” Mr Braddock said. “We found a solution. We have answered the question. We have overcome the logistical hurdles. We have found a way to make it work.”

Labor: Amendments undermine compulsory voting

But Mr Steel responded that the amendments undermined compulsory voting. The Greens’ proposal to issue warnings for not voting would introduce a system of voluntary voting in the ACT.

“It would create two classes of voters with different rules, an unequal system, where most voters have to vote, and some people don’t have to,” Mr Steel said.

“We think that fundamentally undermines equality in our voting system and the objective of compulsory voting to ensure representation and participation in democracy.”

Furthermore, without penalties, fewer young people would vote, reducing their proportional representation.

“It is simply not possible to give young people the vote and at the same time to claim that this won’t increase young people’s involvement in the justice system,” Mr Steel said.

“Attempting to meet these competing goals by pretending that a penalty free voting system is compulsory also isn’t a real solution. That introduces a new, separate class of voter, and that goes against our democratic values that all voters should be equal and participate equally …”

“Labor’s suggestion that our amendments watered down compulsory voting is false,” Mr Davis protested. “Labor’s suggestion that we are unfairly penalising young people is false. They set us a challenge. We’ve risen to that challenge. Failure to vote for our bill today shows that they never took this seriously in the first place.”

Shane Rattenbury considered the amendments “a sound and valid way to solve the challenge of maintaining compulsory voting without imposing fines on young people. There is no legal impediment to supporting this bill and supporting these amendments based on the argument that it undermines compulsory voting.”

Labor’s objections, he argued, were policy and political positions.

Michael Pettersson: Supports enfranchisement but not this bill

Labor MLA Michael Pettersson, elected to the Assembly at the age of 25, was sympathetic in his refusal. He believed that the electoral system would be more representative if teenagers were able to vote.

“I don’t think it is unreasonable for 16- and 17-year-olds to seek enfranchisement in elections,” Mr Pettersson said. “Heck, if you’d asked me whether I wanted to vote when I was 16, I’m certain I would have said yes.”

Mr Pettersson regretted being too young to vote in the 2007 federal election that brought in Kevin Rudd’s Labor government after 11 years of Coalition rule; he was 16 and a half at the time. He joined the Australian Labor Party when he was 17, and got involved in youth politics.

However, Mr Pettersson thought the bill still did not address the risk to compulsory voting, and, like Mr Steel, did not believe that the electoral system should have different types of voters.

“This Bill will give young people the right to vote, but it also fails to enforce that responsibility fairly, evenly, and comparatively to existing enrolled voters …

“I hope that in the future we are positioned to extend franchisement and the associated responsibilities to 16-year-olds in a considered and appropriate manner that does not open the door for the erosion of compulsory voting in this country.”

Canberra Liberals: Greens targeting youth voters

Canberra Liberals MLA Jeremy Hanson said that, as a father of two sons, he did not want additional burdens imposed on 16- and 17-year-olds. It was a difficult time of life, due to academic pressure and concerns about where teenagers were going in life, worsened by cyberbullying and record rates of anxiety and mental health issues.

Mr Hanson also considered the Greens’ bill a “rank” and “exploitative” attempt to capture the youth vote.

“They are trying to increase the number of people they can get fighting for them, and they’re prepared to do anything it takes to do that,” Mr Hanson said.

Mr Davis denied the allegations that lowering the voting age was simply a way for the Greens to get more votes.

“Young people aren’t a monolith,” Mr Davis said. “It insults the intellectual integrity of young people to presume that they would vote for one particular party or one side of politics over another.”

Young conservative Canberrans, for instance, have contacted him with their (often differing) perspectives on Green policy.

“Young people are able to discern for themselves which party best represents their values, which parties are articulating the clearest policy positions for their generation and the next generation. And if the Labor Party and the Liberal Party are afraid that 16- and 17-year-olds might not vote for them, get better policies.”

All three political parties represented in the Legislative Assembly, Mr Davis observed, allowed young people to pay money to join their party and to take part in developing policies. Every MLA took advantage of 16- and 17-year-olds’ free labour during election campaigns to hand out flyers. Sixteen-year-olds could even be scrutineers for the vote, Mr Braddock noted.

“Young people are already involved in politics,” Mr Davis said. “They’re already helping us determine policies that reflect their values and the values of future generations. We should absolutely enfranchise them in the vote. It’s the next logical step.”

Greens will not stop

The Greens politicians may have lost this battle, but they remain optimistic.

“Just because Labor and Liberals have voted against young people having a voice today doesn’t mean the Greens will stop,” Mr Braddock said.

“We will carry this as an initiative to the next election – and we will be asking for more young people to have a say, to get involved in that election campaign, contact their local member, contact their local candidate, and see where they stand on this important issue.”

Mr Davis encouraged young people to get involved in politics, to take to the streets and protest, to write letters to editors, and to hassle MLAs at their mobile electorate offices, demanding answers as to why they had not been included in the vote. The Greens would also offer work experience in their office.

(Labor and Liberal MLAs also encouraged young people to get more involved in politics: to join political parties, movements, or unions; get involved with student associations, religious organisations, or charities; attend community meetings; sign petitions; create political content on social media; and talk to elected representatives.)

“The ACT Greens are very use to being told ‘no’ before we’re told ‘yes’ or before someone rips off our good ideas,” Mr Davis said.

“[Chief Minister] Andrew Barr said we couldn’t electrify the city. We’re electrifying the city. The Chief Minister said we couldn’t get off gas. We’re getting off gas. The Labor Party didn’t think that we could bring in our transformative climate and energy policies. We’re doing exactly that. Day after day in Australia, the Greens are very used to being told ‘no’ – and then winning ‘yes’.

“And with the combined effort of the young people [from Make It 16], and young people across the country who are demanding a say in the policies that affect them … [and] in the people who sit in this building and spend the tax dollars that they pay, we will continue to elevate and amplify their voices. And I’m convinced it is at the peril of the two old parties [Labor and the Liberals] that they continue to ignore the next generation.

“We’re happy to continue taking seats from them if they choose to ignore young people,” Mr Davis said.