21 September

Today a member’s Bill in the name of Golriz Gharaman, which contained a provision to make the voting age 16, did not pass first reading—meaning it will not be considered by a select committee.

Labour and National members said many provisions of the Bill, including the voting age, will be best addressed through the ongoing Independent Electoral Law Review.

“It is disappointing that a select committee will not be considering a bill to lower the voting age, but it is not a serious blow to our movement” said Make It 16 co-director Cate Tipler (they/them).

“Make It 16 will hold both Labour and National to their position of wanting to see what the Independent Electoral Law Review thinks. If the expert panel recommends a voting age of 16, then any government must listen to the experts and let rangatahi vote.”

“We have a successful petition, support from 73 Local Government Elected Members, the Court of Appeal has indicated it is unjustified age discrimination, and we believe strongly that the experts on the electoral law review will look at the evidence and recommend a voting age of 16. This movement is going from strength to strength, and the Government must heed our call for an inclusive democracy.”

“The women’s suffrage movement failed multiple times in Parliament before eventually succeeding in 1893. Change can take time, but we are confident that 16 and 17 year-olds deserve the vote and will get the vote as they have in Scotland, Austria, Wales and many other places.”

The Electoral (Strengthening Democracy) Amendment Bill contained provisions to both make the voting age 16 and to reduce the requirement to lower the voting age from 75% to 51% of Parliament.

Make It 16 supports those provisions, but has no position on the other aspects of the Bill.

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