Campaign to lower the voting age

Amanda Zivcic, Wollongong

Wollongong Resistance and Illawarra Socialist Alliance have embarked on a joint campaign to lower the voting age to 16.

Raffaele Fantasia, a year-11 student at Edmund Rice College, told Green Left Weekly: "Young people face a double burden when it comes to our status in society — we're expected to work, pay tax, pay full-fare on public transport, and live under the same government policies as everyone else, but when it comes to what young people think, no-one's interested.

"We know the real reason the major parties don't want the voting age lowered — as if 16-year-olds are going to vote for parties who lock up refugees and go to war on Iraq!"

The campaign will include a meet-the-candidates public meeting organised by high school students, which will discuss the issue of lowering the voting age; mock ballots on as many high schools as possible in the week before the federal election; press conferences; and a student newsletter.

Fantasia said that students at four schools have already come on board the campaign. She hopes the recent anti-war performance at the Rock Eisteddfod will "get some more attention" for the campaign.

From Green Left Weekly, August 11, 2004.

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From GLW issue 593