During a community wellbeing committee meeting on Tuesday, councillors received a report about the bill which was introduced at Parliament in response to the Supreme Court’s declaration of inconsistency against the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act for the voting age being 18.
They had to make a decision if they would like to make a submission on the matter and if they would support lowering the age.
Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark believed lowering the age would consequently lower the voter turnout.
"I think we will end up with a situation [in which] we will have a lower percentage of participation because if we add the whole lot of young people in and they don’t vote because they don’t care less, they don’t have an interest in local body, then ... the 55% [turnout], will end up 45%."
He also said it was ironic that central government asked for council views on the local body election as they were not ready to do the same for their election as it would require a 75% majority of voting MPs and National and Act already said they would go against it.
Crs Lesley Soper, Alex Crackett and Steve Broad supported lowering the age. Cr Soper said this would give them the perfect opportunity to point out that civic education needed to be part of the school programme.
Cr Broad said before the by-election he had another point of view, but after being part of a meeting with young people in the community, he was impressed with how the young people articulated and made powerful questions.
Crs Ian Pottinger, Barry Stewart and Allan Arnold said they would go against it because they believed it needed consistency.
Cr Pottinger pointed out the justice system advocates for rehabilitation pathways for a 16-year-old because they were less capable to make decisions, while Cr Stewart said their "brain is not developed enough to make decisions like this".
Chairman Darren Ludlow disagreed.
"To say that a young person wouldn’t think as much about how they cast their vote as an adult is fraught.
"The commentary I see in social media [if] is anything to go by, there is a whole lot of adults that don’t think either."
Most councillors voted to make a neutral submission that could ensure civic education was in place before any decision or debate about the matter was brought to Parliament.
Councillors would read a draft submission on the issue at an extraordinary council meeting next week.
