Amanda Zivcic
High school students in Wollongong launched a “pre-emptive strike” against the Coalition government, holding mock federal election ballots on several schools.
The ballots, organised by high school members of Resistance and the Socialist Alliance, were open to all high school students and formed part of a public campaign initiated by the Socialist Alliance to lower the voting age from 18 to 16 years.
Students on Smith Hill High School voted on September 22 and more than 200 students participated. The results were a blow to the Coalition and showed a decided left bent: the Greens came first, followed by the Socialist Alliance, then Labor. The Liberals made little impact.
On September 23, 150 students from Edmund Rice College cast their votes and again the victors were the Greens. The ALP came second, scoring just two votes more than the SOcialist Alliance. On September 24, Woonoona High School students were polled. More than 90 students voted and the ALP narrowly defeated the Greens.
According to Chris Williams, the 26-year-old Socialist Alliance candidate for Cunningham, “Secondary students, whose future it is, clearly have no confidence in the Coalition government. They do not support its racist and war-mongering policies.
“The high vote for the Greens and Socialist Alliance also shows that many young people are looking for more progressive options than the ALP. These are the voters of the future and the two major parties had better watch out!”
Raffaele Fantasia, a 16 year-old Edmund Rice College student and Socialist Alliance member, said: “We work and pay taxes, but we are denied a say. Young people aged 16 and 17 are very concerned about the direction Howard is taking this nation. We don’t support his pro-war and racist policies, and we deserve the right to say so!”
From Green Left Weekly, September 29, 2004.
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