Children's vote idea stirs debate

The idea of giving children the right to vote - through their parents - has been put forward in a Labour MP's blog as a way to prevent youngsters being broke in later years.

Phil Twyford's blog on Labour's Red Alert blog site - titled "Give kids the vote, or at least give it to their parents" - has caused great debate.

Several bloggers support the idea, but others are calling it rubbish.

Referring to research, Mr Twyford presents the concept of parents having the right to vote on behalf of their children until they are old enough to vote for themselves.

A parent with eight children would therefore be entitled to nine votes altogether. The idea would mean parents would be voting not only for their future, but be forced to put heavy consideration on the betterment of the future of their children and how their decisions would affect that.

Mr Twyford said that although he was not advocating the idea, it was something worth considering.

"Politicians respond to pressure from voters. If society is ageing and the proportion of young people is getting smaller, then you know who will benefit," he said.

"You get very good policies for older people and not so good for younger people."

Talking about the Government's decision to stop payments towards the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, the blog discusses how the decision now affects those born in Generation X and Generation Y.

Those born in the 1960s - the baby-boom generation - had free tertiary education and high capital gain on their houses, the blog says.

Baby-boomers are eagerly waiting for their superannuation - which is most likely to be paid out through taxes from their children and grandchildrens' generations.

"It's an issue of inter-generational fairness," Mr Twyford said.

"You've got young people paying taxes for people who are getting superannuation, while when they're older they're likely to be getting nothing."

Dr Rhema Vaithianathan, senior lecturer at the department of economics at the business school of the University of Auckland, said the idea of parents voting for their children was not new.

"It's completely credible and a reasonable idea. When children need to have an operation or anything like that that they themselves cannot sign for, their parents are able to give informed consent.

"You are acting on their behalf, about something that will help and benefit them - this is the same thing," she said.

One blogger promised to leave the country if the concept was made a policy.

"Why should a vote be given on behalf of a person when that person cannot decide where the vote should go? In 2008 my much younger stepbrother really liked Peter Dunne. When asked why, he said it was because of his hair - he wasserious."