Today (Tuesday 6 June 2023) the Independent Electoral Law Review, made up of independent experts in New Zealand’s election system, recommended in its interim report that the voting age be lowered to 16. This comes just two weeks after Parliament’s Justice Select Committee recommended the voting age for local elections be lowered to 16.

“The experts on the Independent Electoral Law Review panel have joined a strong chorus of calls for the voting age to be lowered. That includes the Review into the Future of Local Government, the Justice Select Committee, 72 individual Local Government Elected Members who signed an open letter, 6 of Aotearoa’s largest councils, over 7,400 New Zealanders who signed our petition, and the Government’s basic human rights obligations as declared by the Supreme Court” says Make It 16 Co-Director Sage Garrett (he/him).

“We call on all MPs to listen to the experts and support lowering the voting age to 16. Every party must back young people and support our human rights.

“Right now, the best thing Parliament can do to give effect to the expert recommendations from this review and the Review into the Future of Local Government is to make the voting age 16 for local elections.

“Young people deserve a say in Local Government decisions, and Local Government needs rangatahi.

“We deserve to have a say in the buses we take, the streets we drive on, and the public spaces we live in. We need a voice in decisions on climate adaptation. We will have to deal with the climate crisis, so we should have a say in decisions on it.

“Equally, Local Government needs participation from young people. Turnout rates at last year’s local elections were just 40%. It was as low as 36% in Auckland. Research shows that people who vote for the first time at 16 or 17 are more likely to vote than 18-24 year olds and will continue to later in life.

“We understand how constitutionally difficult it is to change the voting age for general elections. But the local elections change can be made now. It is time.”

The report notes that

“[T]he right to vote is a fundamental right”

“We [the Independent Electoral Law Review panel] are convinced by the evidence that 16-year-olds are just as capable of making informed decisions about how to vote as 18-year-olds.”

“Lowering the voting age could have wider benefits on increasing participation. Studies overseas have shown that voting when newly eligible is an important factor in becoming a life-long voter. We note there is some evidence from Austria and Scotland’s independence referendum that shows higher turnout rates among 16- and 17-year-olds compared to people in their late teens and early twenties.”

“A greater proportion of the Māori population is aged 16 or 17, relative to non-Māori… This means there are proportionately fewer votes to represent the entire Māori population.”

Editor’s notes

The Independent Electoral Law Review interim report can be found here (voting age recommendations at pages 116-120: https://electoralreview.govt.nz/assets/PDF/IER-Interim-Report.pdf

The draft report of the Review into the Future of Local Government can be found here (the voting age recommendation is at pages 171-172) https://www.futureforlocalgovernment.govt.nz/assets/Reports/Draft-report-final.pdf

Turnout figures for the 2022 local elections are summarised here: https://www.votelocal.co.nz/final-voter-turnout-results/

The Justice Select Committee report can be found here: https://selectcommittees.parliament.nz/v/2/51a3e2c4-c6c0-487c-3610-08db55ba875a. Make It 16’s response to the minority views can be found here: https://twitter.com/makeit16nz/status/1660473201967923201?s=20

Dunedin City Council endorsed lowering the voting age in its submission to the Review into the Future of Local Government. Christchurch City Council has supported lowering the voting age to 16 since early 2020 when it submitted in support of the change to the Justice Select Committee’s review into the 2019 local elections (which it repeated in the review of the 2022 local elections). Wellington City Council has 'advocating for lowering the voting age to 16' in its Children and Young People Strategy from 2021. Hutt City, Porirua City, and Kapiti Coast District Councils all passed resolutions in December last year supporting lowering the voting age to 16 and calling on the promised Bill to have a separate vote in Parliament for local and general elections.

In December 2022 72 local government elected members signed an open letter to cabinet supporting a voting age of 16 and calling on the government’s promised Bill to contain a separate vote in Parliament on local and general elections.

Dr Jan Eichhorn and Dr Christine Hübner did research on the impact of lowering the voting age on voter turnout in Scotland and found that not only do 16/17 year-olds turnout at higher rates, but also people who vote for the first time at 16/17 are more likely to vote later in life https://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/votes-at-16-in-scotland-study

Sage Garrett and Thomas Brocherie have recently taken over as co-directors of Make It 16 from Caeden Tipler and Sanat Singh. Caeden and Sanat remain on the organisation’s leadership team

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