The Tasmanian Greens today expressed disappointment that Labor and Liberal had combined to defeat the Greens push to give sixteen and seventeen year old Tasmanians the option to enrol to vote.
Greens Leader Nick McKim MP said the result was unfortunate for young Tasmanians, but congratulated the Member for Lyons Rebecca White MP for undertaking to raise the issue at the upcoming Labor State Conference.
“The Greens will continue our push to provide our 16 and 17 year olds the option to voluntarily register to enrol to vote,” Mr McKim said.
“Currently sixteen year olds can work, pay taxes, use a firearm, get arrested, join the army, have children, get behind the wheel of a car and live on their own but opponents of our proposal believe their opinions are somehow not worthy of the democratic process,” Mr McKim said.
“It’s no surprise that this proposal has received a hostile response from the Liberal Party and some conservative media fuddy-duddies.”
“To suggest that today’s young people are too busy playing their gaming consoles to care about participating in democracy is offensive to thousands of young Tasmanians, and devalues their contribution.”
“The Liberal Party was never going to support this proposal, because an irrational fear of young people is a hallmark of conservative politics.”
“The claim that engaging young people in politics is counter to achieving good learning outcomes shows how little the Liberals understand education.”
“The best way to get more young people engaged in politics is to give them a meaningful say in it.”
“This has sadly brought to the surface some of the shocking prejudice that exists among some political leaders towards young people.”
“We should never underestimate the awareness, intelligence and capacity of our young people.
Nick McKim MP Greens Leader Wednesday,
