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Having more “Youths” voting would probably improve the average voting competency.
If they cover Preferential Ballot Voting in School in “Social Studies” (or “Australian Studies”, or whatever they call it this decade), they would definitely be more in-touch than the majority of “grown up” voters.
I just had a colleague recommend lowering the the voting age at the top and too. Anyone over 70 no longer has any stake in the future so shouldn’t be able to vote for the future.
I immediately got Logan’s Run Carrousel vibes.
Original MJA article here
[Young voices, healthy futures: the rationale for lowering the voting age to 16
This would be probably help fight the Under 16 Social Media Ban idiocracy, Negative Gearing and and a bunch of other massive topics. Awesome. You just know the Libs would turn the accusations of "radicalized" youth to 11. I love how being anti povo and war is considered "radicalized".
That 16 year old in the pic has seen better days
Probably not. Kids are stupid enough without shoving political propaganda down their throats.
Try not bashing them over the head with exams and the idea that failing them will fuck up their lives forever.
Not Australian but I definitely wouldn't want 16-year-old me to have voted in the '90s, but that may have been a product of where I was in the rural US, access to information, etc. Maybe it's different there and now.
I wouldn't have let 20 year old me vote, as a literal racist conservative. I don't think there's a definitive age where people grow out of their god awful opinions (read: the existence of the Republican party).
But the average 16 year old is HUGELY more politically aware than the 16 year olds of yore. Im for it
That is why I hedged a bit in my last sentence; there is a lot more info available today and through a greater variety of sources. Disinformation, though, is certainly a problem moreso than it was when I was younger.
I was one of those american far-right evangelical conservatives and grew up where it was not uncommon to hear "that's jewish" to mean something uncool and hear about "the synagogues of satan" in church. I definitely stopped feeling that way once I got out on my own and out of that bubble and would be horrified the impact that my decisions would have had on others. The pastor at one church we went to actually came over in I think 1989 or 1990 from Wagga Wagga and I spent a fair bit of time with them growing up.