The Invercargill Youth Council cannot come to a united, unanimous opinion about the proposal to lower the voting age to 16.
Youth Crs Ryan Frost and Levi TeAmo presented the 2023 Inaugural Youth Council Report to councillors during an Invercargill City Council community wellbeing committee meeting on Tuesday, where they touched on a range of issues.
The first topic of discussion was the single-transferable vote (STV) and the first pass the post (FPP) electoral systems due to the council being required to make a decision in August regarding the voting structure for the next elections.
The pair said the youth council widely agreed council switch to a STV system as it typically provided more effective representation.
Touching on the potential lowering of the voting age to 16, Mr Frost said the youth council did not have a consensus opinion. The duo presented their own stances.
Mr Frost said he "absolutely opposed" the idea.
"There are some exceptions to 16, 17-year-olds who are independent and look after themselves, but many still live at home so not only do they not look after themselves, but definitely wouldn’t have a spouse or any dependants that they also look after."
Mr TeAmo said the argument against lowering the voting age was based on assumptions.
"You simply can’t assume that 16, 17-year-olds aren’t capable of making educated, proper decisions."
He said there were benefits to lowering the voting age, including encouraging youth to be politically active, proving insights into how governments and local politics work, and making voting a familiar process.
