Advocacy group Make it 16 has long been fighting for young people to have the right to vote. Photo: New Zealand Electoral Commission
A group campaigning to lower the voting age to 16 has been vindicated in a sweeping review of the electoral system.
The review has recommended the voting age be lowered to 16, as well as reducing the party vote threshold to get into Parliament be lowered to 3.5 percent, lower limits on anonymous donations and a public referendum on a longer Parliamentary term.
Advocacy group Make it 16 has long been fighting for young people to have the right to vote.
"We were very pleased with the recommendation," co-director Sage Garrett told RNZ's Midday Report on Tuesday.
"It means a lot to us that having all these experts that the government themselves have asked for advice from have given support to our campaign… it's really ramping up the amount of support that we're getting from so many different areas, from so many different levels. That really just shows how urgent this issue is."
But current 16-and 17-year-olds will still have to wait until at least 2026 at the earliest before voting in a general election. The interim report and recommendations still have to go through another round of public consultation before being handed to the government in November, which is after this year's general election.
Last year, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Make It 16, saying there was an inconsistency between the voting age - 18 - and the Bill of Rights Act on the basis of age discrimination.
But changing the voting age in national elections requires 75 percent support in parliament, which is unlikely considering National opposes it.
"At the moment our campaign is asking for local elections, which we have the support within government already to get, which means that there's really no time to waste and putting it through," Garrett said.
Changing the local government voting age only requires a simple majority in parliament. Then-Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern said in November Labour MPs would be allowed to vote how they wanted, while National said it would vote as a caucus against it.
The Greens back changing the age for both local and national government, while ACT opposes it at the national level, but would let MPs vote how they want on local government.
"I do think that we have a lot of support," Garrett said. "I also think that because there's this declaration of inconsistency within our fundamental rights, there needs to be a very, very extreme reason for us not to be able to have this go through. And I don't think that's there, which I think makes it just so important."
