Justice Minister Kiri Allan has not had advice about a referendum. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Justice Minister Kiri Allan has poured cold water on speculation that there will be a referendum on lowering the voting age.
Allan said the Government was committed to its existing plan, which is to introduce legislation to lower the voting age to 16. Ministers had not openly discussed a referendum as part of this plan.
“There’s been no changes in our position on that,” Allan said.
She also said she had not received advice on a referendum.
Allan would not initially answer whether she had a personal view on whether the voting age should be put to a referendum and when pressed, she said “power to the people” and walked into Labour’s weekly caucus meeting.
Newshub’s AM asked Prime Minister Chris Hipkins whether the Government might try to lower the voting age in a referendum.
“Technically, there are two ways that you could change it - one would be a supermajority in Parliament - so a 75 per cent majority in Parliament. It’s clear that’s not available,” Hipkins said.
“The other [way] would be a referendum. The Government hasn’t made decisions on which of those two options, if either, we would pursue.”
Make It 16, the group that took the case to the Supreme Court, said it strongly opposed a referendum.
Make It 16 co-director Caeden Tipler said the “majority should not get to determine whether the minority gets a say at all”.
“A referendum that asks people not affected by a human rights breach like this whether they think it should be fixed is a dangerous precedent to set.
“The Government committed to introducing a voting age Bill to Parliament in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision. It should follow through on this,” Tipler said.
The brouhaha was sparked by comments from Cabinet Minister Michael Wood on Newshub’s AM, which were interpreted as suggesting the Government would put the voting age to a referendum.
“We’ve always had the view that if the voting age was to be lowered, it would be really significant and there would probably need to be a process of the New Zealand public having their say on that.”
Debate on the voting age is in response to a Supreme Court declaring that the age restriction on voting had not been justified as a reasonable limitation on people’s rights.
Under new legislation, Parliament and the Government must respond to that declaration - however, they do not have to commit to overturning the restriction.
Nevertheless, former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she would introduce legislation to lower the voting age to 16 for local and general elections.
There appears to be sufficient support in Parliament to have the voting age lowered to 16 for local elections, which requires only a simple majority.
However, the general election voting age is entrenched, meaning 75 per cent of MPs would need to back it for it to pass in Parliament.
The only other route would be a referendum.
Referendum legislation could be passed with a simple majority in Parliament. The voting age could be lowered if it passed with a simple majority at that referendum.
The new Police Commissioner will also be in attendance.