Public Address | Cafe | Legal Beagle: The climate strike and the voting age

andin

Sat, 09 Mar 2019 15:36:16 +1300

vote the same when that is the right thing to do, and differently when that is the right thing to do,

Im not sure you can extend the current situation out in that way.
Maybe its a one of.
So many adults have a compromised view when it comes to…

Walter Nicholls

Sat, 09 Mar 2019 14:35:07 +1300

For all the kids who vote the same as their parents ... there will be plenty of kids who vote differently to their parents

What we want of course is kids to vote the same when that is the right thing to do, and differently when that is the right…

Ian Dalziel

Sat, 09 Mar 2019 08:23:10 +1300

Sounds like a school modelled on A S Neill's Summerhill

Moz

Fri, 08 Mar 2019 22:45:19 +1300

Compulsory voting might be a different way to get a useful result. Having lived with it for a while I think the advantages very much outweigh the disadvantages. But combining it with allowing 12 year olds to vote if they want to might be problematic. On the whole I favour…

Walter Nicholls

Fri, 08 Mar 2019 18:04:37 +1300

I suspect there will be more kids who vote climate emergency or other long-term issues than their parents do
As I'm sure it applies with 18+ although I can't just lay my hands on evidence in 5min searching. The general election results are too crude to determine this kind of…

Moz

Fri, 08 Mar 2019 17:04:13 +1300

Perhaps, it's pretty close to a wash.

I suspect there will be more kids who vote climate emergency or other long-term issues than their parents do, across the "left-right spectrum" that is the only one our pundit class seem capable of understanding. The environmentalist-nihilist spectrum is incomprehensible to them, but…

mpledger

Fri, 08 Mar 2019 13:55:31 +1300

As to voting at 14, I'll be cynical again and wonder if anyone has done research into the correlation of 14-17 year-olds' voting preferences with that of their parents.

For all the kids who vote the same as their parents because they are their parents, I think there will be…

Moz

Fri, 08 Mar 2019 12:41:02 +1300

I'd love to see the voting age abolished altogether. If someone has the desire and the ability to go into a voting booth, tick a box and express their opinion, all power to them.

I agree, but I'm willing to support any step in that general direction.

Moz

Fri, 08 Mar 2019 12:36:54 +1300

I've often wished that people had to answer a test of general political awareness before they are permitted to vote.

Australia has that to a larger degree than NZ, by having a less trivial voting system. Further up the list is the USA with their complex and biased voting requirements…

linger

Fri, 08 Mar 2019 11:00:14 +1300

N.B. it may be worth revisiting an earlier thread outlining a rather different proposal to get younger voters more involved.

andin

Fri, 08 Mar 2019 10:51:25 +1300

I’ve meet 30-year-olds who we probably shouldn’t include if we truly believe some people’s views should not count because those views are not well developed.

Neuroplasticity in older people more often that not goes downhill, probably because they dont know what that is. But accounting for bias and prejudice is…

linger

Fri, 08 Mar 2019 10:47:03 +1300

when the law says you have sufficient cognitive abilitiesTo clarify: that’s choosing an age criterion typically associated with a developmental stage allowing sufficient cognitive abilities.
It is NOT proposed that cognitive ability be a criterion applied to individuals: that would lead towards state-mandated cognitive testing to decide when dementia should…

Walter Nicholls

Fri, 08 Mar 2019 10:08:26 +1300

I've meet 30-year-olds who we probably shouldn't include

I've often wished that people had to answer a test of general political awareness before they are permitted to vote. Unfortunately I imagine that such a test is far more subvertable than the current process of attracting votes by campaigning.

I'd probably…

Walter Nicholls

Fri, 08 Mar 2019 09:56:15 +1300

I'm not supporting giving votes to 14-17 year-olds because I think they'll vote a particular way.

Nor do I. I'm just observing that our best efforts have gone into helping our children become independent thinkers, and this has resulted them in choosing support for exactly the same party I vote…

Stephen Day

Fri, 08 Mar 2019 09:45:44 +1300

Nice, I'd love to see the voting age abolished altogether. If someone has the desire and the ability to go into a voting booth, tick a box and express their opinion, all power to them. I've known 7-year-olds with coherent, consistent political opinions that deserve to be added to the…

andin

Thu, 07 Mar 2019 20:57:14 +1300

when the law says you have sufficient cognitive abilities
Is the law informed by science? It should be. Frontal cortex isnt fully developed till 25 and von economo? neurons who knew about them? I think we all need to go back to school. Anyway my favorite Robert Sapolsky is always…

Moz

Thu, 07 Mar 2019 17:20:03 +1300

when the law says you have sufficient cognitive abilities to...

That's good enough for me! Full support.

Now, if only I was sufficiently opposed to the striking kids to come over and vote for the party(s) that favour this change.

Brent Jackson

Thu, 07 Mar 2019 16:22:48 +1300

I think the real benefit of this will be that youth will be introduced to voting while still at school, so will be much more likely to get on the electoral roll, and hopefully then more likely to vote.

Graeme Edgeler

Thu, 07 Mar 2019 16:14:52 +1300

As to voting at 14, I’ll be cynical again and wonder if anyone has done research into the correlation of 14-17 year-olds’ voting preferences with that of their parents. It’s not the best argument for enfranchising this age group , but at worst the voting preference of parents with teenagers…

Walter Nicholls

Thu, 07 Mar 2019 16:11:36 +1300

I do not know what policy changes they seek
Call me a cynic but the majority of them don't and won't know. However this does not devalue their purpose or sincerity, they could reasonably expect that the Government has resources to get the advice of experts.

As to voting at…

simon g

Thu, 07 Mar 2019 15:23:49 +1300

"Won't somebody think of the children?"
"Yes. The children."
"No, not them ..."

Politics/Media Guidebook, page one: Children should be invoked, not heard.

Graeme Edgeler

Thu, 07 Mar 2019 14:33:21 +1300

Just posting a comment so I can turn on email notifications to any comments :-)

Public Address

Thu, 07 Mar 2019 14:33:21 +1300

Discussion from blog post.