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Data published by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) revealing that 30% of young people are not enrolled to vote is a statistic that we should look to improve.
As a candidate in the both the State and Local Government elections, and campaigning on a platform to represent Younger Tasmanians, I would encourage all people who are eligible to vote to check their enrolment status.
It is very important that our Youth have a say in the elections of Local, State and Federal Governments. Without being enrolled, you simply don’t have the option of having your first democratic right, to vote and help choose who in our State or Country governs.
Today I will be at the Hobart Show armed with electoral role enrolment forms and pre-paid envelopes to encourage as many people as possible to enrol to vote or update their details if they think they have changed.
The AEC admit that it is difficult to encourage 18-24 year olds to enrol, especially when the only way to do so is with a paper form. I would also encourage the consideration of completely online enrolments, which is simply not possible with the current Commonwealth legislation.
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Matt Stevenson
Liberal Candidate for Denison
22nd October 2009
I regularly hear that the youth of today are politically apathetic. This is a statement that I completely refute, but believe the problem we really see is a difference in the way different generations communicate.
We have a generation of people now who have not known a world without computers, emails, the internet and mobile phones. They expect to actually communicate through electronic means, not simple use things such as the internet as an encyclopaedia with a pretty wrapper.
We need to ensure that we do not isolate a whole generation of Tasmanians from the political process purely because we are unwilling to communicate in a way that works with them.
Last night I set up a facebook page aimed at getting people to enrol to vote or update their details. And I will shortly launch my website which will clearly have a focus on encouraging people to become more aware of their right to vote.
I would encourage anyone running for Local, State or Federal elections, if they have a website, to ensure that they have information available on how to enrol to vote.
In addition to encouraging Younger Tasmanians to vote, I will be encouraging them to have more of a say in the political process.
Over the next few months I will be holding regular forums. Early forums will be tasked with identifying the issues that are most in need of attention from the perspective of Younger Tasmanians. The later forums will be aimed at workshopping ideas to help reduce the prevalence of the issues identified in the first few forums.
The first in the series of forums will be held upstairs at the Republic Bar in North Hobart on Wednesday 2nd December. You will then be able to kick on afterwards with local band ‘Your Demise’ performing a special gig.
Matt Stevenson is also an independent candidate for Alderman in the Local Government Elections for Glenorchy City.
Matt Stevenson, Liberal Candidate for Denison