It’s the age when our decisions start meaning something. The choices we make can have a real impact on the rest of our lives – particularly those around schooling.
We can choose to leave school forever at 16 and enter the workforce full-time, or we can continue on to finish our high school years and consider tertiary education. That means grades actually matter and are no longer just about bragging rights.
Sixteen-year-olds are old enough to get a driver’s license and own their own car. At 16, legally, you’re allowed to move out of home, have sex, apply for a firearms license and make your own decisions about medical treatments.
You can even get married and drink alcohol, although those ones do require parental consent and supervision.
But in many other ways, at 16, you’re still considered a child.
Things you can’t do at 16: Buy alcohol or cigarettes. Get a bank loan. Gamble at a casino. Work in a brothel.
Vote.
One of those things is not like the others. Buying drugs like alcohol and nicotine can have life-altering ramifications so having older age limits makes a lot of sense. Borrowing money can have serious consequences, particularly for someone who is likely to still be in school. Gambling is addictive and destructive. Sex work is inherently dangerous.
But voting? There is nothing dangerous about the act of voting itself, at least not in New Zealand.
You could make an argument that voting for a bad candidate could have dangerous outcomes, sure, but that’s assuming that there are enough 16 and 17-year-olds to overwhelm the votes of every other person aged 18 and up. That’s a rather unlikely scenario.
And, hey, Donald Trump was voted in by 18-pluses in the States and that’s saying something.
It’s wild that in this country, a 16-year-old could – legally – be married with kids, living in their own home, driving their own car and organising their own annual flu shots, but would not be considered old enough to have a say in who runs our country.
But it is looking like that could change – partially, at least.
On Monday, the Supreme Court declared the current voting age of 18 was inconsistent with the right to be free from discrimination on the basis of age.
The Prime Minister has announced that Parliament will debate the issue before the middle of next year.
For 16 and 17-year-olds to be able to vote in the general election, 75 per cent of Parliament would need to support it, which looks unlikely as National and Act have indicated they would not support a change.
But changing the age for local elections only needs 50 per cent support which would make it far more achievable.
That actually seems a sensible option.
The turnout for the recent local government elections was abysmal. Only 36 per cent of voters nationwide cast their ballots. Slightly more than a third of us.
But what happens if we start encouraging teenagers to vote while they’re still in school?
We can teach them about how our councils work in the classroom and let them put their lessons into practice in the real world.
Public polling stations could potentially be set up in school halls so youngsters could vote on their lunch breaks.
We could encourage candidates to have debates at school assemblies.
Teach teenagers that their voices matter and that will nurture civic responsibility in our coming generations. After all, one of the best ways to teach responsibility is to give responsibility.
Teach them exactly what our local councils do, and how their everyday lives will be impacted by the people they vote for.
Teach them that they can have a say about the things that are important to them.
Teach them to care.
Age limits are important in many cases. I’d certainly back a law change preventing any under-18s from marrying. Heck, I’d even seriously consider voting for putting the alcohol-purchasing age back up to 21.
But voting? I reckon that any 16 or 17-year-old who actually wants to vote should be allowed to do so.
We wouldn’t be the first country in the world to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote either, and the sky certainly hasn’t fallen in Scotland, Argentina or Austria.
We need to do something to get our voting population to put their ticks on a piece of paper and I reckon this could be just the way to do it.
If we can trust them to marry, procreate and drive a car, I’m sure we can trust them to vote.
- Sonya Bateson is a writer, reader, and crafter raising her family in Tauranga. She is a millennial who enjoys eating avocado on toast, drinking lattes and defying stereotypes. As a sceptic, she reserves the right to change her mind when presented with new evidence.
