Councillors voted 10-3 to approve a draft submission to Parliament, endorsing The Electoral (Lowering Voting Age for Local Elections and Polls) Legislation Bill, at a council meeting yesterday.
The Bill would lower the minimum voting age for local government elections.
The Bill proposed a new category of voters, youth electors, would be established to make 16 and 17-year-olds eligible to vote and would come into action in the 2028 local elections.
The Bill would not change the minimum voting age for the general election.
A council report stated Dunedin had a "substantial" percentage of potential youth electors.
In June 2022, 9.07% of Dunedin’s population were aged between 15 and 19 and 5.51% between 10 and 14.
In its proposed submission to the Bill, the council recommended improving civics education in New Zealand schools to bolster pupils’ institutional knowledge and confidence in engaging with the election process.
Cr Steve Walker said 16-year-olds were already in significant positions of responsibility and therefore should have a say in how their taxes were used.
Young people were a very informed group on climate change issues and they should not be excluded from weighing in, he said.
Cr Lee Vandervis said a person under the age of 20 was considered a minor in the eyes of the law.
The notion that young people were more informed about climate change highlighted how easily swayed they were by "whatever the fashion of the media moment may be", he said.
He said people tended to vote towards the left in their youth, and labelled the Bill a "ruse" to secure more left-leaning votes.
Cr Christine Garey said she came away from a Dunedin Youth Council meeting with a reinforced view of the wisdom of young people.
She had "enormous faith" in their ability to engage, consider and show wisdom in the way they exercised a vote.
Cr Andrew Whiley cautioned that not all young people were the same, as with all age demographics, and only the cream of the crop was being referenced.
Cr Marie Laufiso said the Bill was about power and choice, and young people needed both to weigh in on issues that affected them.
"It’s not about individual children, it’s about giving a cohort the choice and the power that we already enjoy.
"We give them all these burdens, but we don’t give them any power."
Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich said it was critical the lower voting age had an accompanying civics education programme, so young people could have an ability to exercise what they had learned.
