Page 807 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 29 March 2006
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which I will not go over, about some of the problems that we might find in relation to this motion of Dr Foskey’s. As I said earlier, I think the word “citizens” should be used rather than “residents” because citizens actually vote in elections. That point can be taken up in any further deliberations.
Those of us in opposition certainly support compulsory voting, and there is a real problem in respect of the voluntary aspect here. I think the Chief Minister has made a number of points in relation to that which I certainly will not labour. There are a number of practical difficulties in relation to what Dr Foskey is proposing to undertake. Nevertheless, it is an idea that is worthy of being looked at by the Assembly. Certainly, there are many young people aged 16 and 17 who would probably not necessarily want be in this place—where they get driven around to meet Tony Blair or Chinese premiers or whatever—but certainly would be well and truly able and capable of exercising a very deliberate and intelligent vote in elections, perhaps much more so than people who might be 40, 50, or 60.
I do not know whether Dr Foskey is hoping that if this motion is passed the Green vote will go up. I do not think that is necessarily so. I think when one looks at the various voting ages, there are some differences sometimes but quite often that simply is not the case. People of whatever age can determine if a government is going well or otherwise and, even in our system, are certainly able to differentiate between candidates. And, of course, people’s votes change, too.
It is interesting that we are having this debate. It is not all that long ago that the voting age was dropped to 18. I think when I first was interested in voting the age was around about 18 or 19. I missed out by about a year in being able to vote in the 1972 election when Gough Whitlam won.
Mrs Dunne: Did you vote for Gough?
MR STEFANIAK: No. It is interesting that you should mention that, Mrs Dunne. Talking about how people’s tastes change, I was going to vote for a female Aboriginal activist and give Kep Enderby my second vote, with some reservations. By the time I got to vote in 1974 I think I voted for Dr Peter Hughes, who was a Liberal standing against Kep Enderby. In 1975 my father and I—I think this was the only time we voted the same way—voted for a Ukrainian citizen called Mr Kavalenko. I felt sorry for him, and my father was impressed because he was very anti-Soviet. We both voted for the same man, although my second preference went to the Liberal’s John Haslem and my father’s second preference, being a good Labor man, went to, I think, Kep Enderby. So it is interesting to see how people vote.
Mr Stanhope: What went wrong. When did it all go pear shaped?
MR STEFANIAK: He was a very conservative Labor man, Jon. He would certainly have been in the right faction if he had ever joined the party, but there you go.
The voting age is a fascinating subject but I exercise a word of caution. As the Chief Minister rightly says, a lot of our laws are based on certain things that happen when you are 18. You can vote, you can go to the pub and you can get married without your
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