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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 04 Hansard (Wednesday, 31 March 2004) . . Page.. 1457 ..

I have not specified any particular model. However, it is crucial that young people themselves are given the opportunity to comment on this issue. Whilst I was technically counted as a young person 12 months ago, I am not now. There are no young people in this Assembly to take part in this debate and to participate in this decision. A process of consultation would be essential to any investigation into this proposal. Lowering the voting age is a way to increase participation in the electoral system and to allow young people a greater say in their community, and I think we can all agree that that is what we are trying to achieve with this debate today. So I again thank Mr Hargreaves for drawing this issue to the attention of the Assembly today and I hope that the Assembly can agree to broaden the scope.

MS TUCKER (5.10): Voting is a basic democratic right, and over time the notion of citizenship in relation to voting rights has gradually expanded. It was not until this century that women could vote in all states and it was not until the 1960s that indigenous people could vote. It was in the 1970s that the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18.

The ACT Electoral Commissioner has confirmed that approximately 78 per cent of eligible Australian citizens in the 18 to 25 age group are enrolled. This figure is complicated by a few factors that members have already mentioned. However, this is widely recognised as something to be concerned about. Work is being done to try and encourage young people to enrol. I think Mr Hargreaves recognises this also.

I understand that Elections ACT has a number of ongoing enrolment programs that target the 18 to 25 age group. These include access data from federal and local departments to target mail-outs and household reviews. I understand that there is a progressive Australia-wide youth electoral study being undertaken at the moment. This study is a four-year longitudinal study with the Australian Electoral Commission and two universities and it sounds as though it will present some very interesting perspectives on why young people do or do not enrol and vote, their attitudes to enrolment and voting and whether there are social and psychological variables that influence participation. I look forward to seeing the results of this study and I understand that in about a month some preliminary results will be released.

One of the issues that the study will address and that Mr Hargreaves’s motion also addresses is civics education. I believe that civics education is a critical part of a young person’s education. Teaching young people about their rights, active citizenship, parliamentary systems and their role in elections and political life is critical to a person’s education. In the ACT a number of schools have taken up the Discovering Democracy program, a Commonwealth funded program that I have witnessed at a couple of primary schools in Canberra. These programs seem to be quite effective in encouraging student understanding of elections, and their role in political processes, by their undertaking Hare-Clark student elections and other projects. These sorts of innovative programs are a good example of ways to encourage an awareness of young people’s role in a political system, about how they can participate in the parliamentary system and about some of the decisions that are made in the political system that will affect them. I am happy to support the suggestion that these sorts of programs be introduced more widely into the curriculum in the ACT. Indeed, students should have regular contact with civics education throughout their education, especially closer to the time when they will leave school.

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