While few people would be opposed to encouraging greater youth involvement in the political process, common sense suggests the ACT Green's proposal to drop the voting age in Territory elections to 16 is not a good way to go about it.
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Party convener, Michael Mazengarb, has fleshed out the suggestion in a submission to an inquiry into the ACT election, the Electoral Act and whether the franchise should be extended to 16 and 17 year olds.
His party secured the parliamentary inquiry, which also saw him call for the Territory Government to be increased by another nine members ahead of the 2020 election, as part of their power sharing deal with Andrew Barr and Labor last year.
If they ever got up both of these initiatives would be of significant benefit to the Greens.
The party has always polled strongly amongst the young and any lowering of the voting quota, in this case from about 17,000 to 10,000 votes, would benefit it, the micro parties and independents far more than either the Labor or Liberal parties.
With the assembly having only just been increased in numbers from 17 to 25 at last year's election there is currently a dearth of activists on the streets calling for yet more ACT politicians. Most of the voters seem to be of the view we already have an elegant sufficiency.
The extension of the vote to cover 16 and 17 year olds is on an even stickier wicket.
Acting electoral commissioner, Ro Spence, did an excellent job of pointing out the major, common-sense based, objections.
The principal one was that to embark on such a step would place the ACT dramatically out of step with every other jurisdiction in the country.
Another was that while Mr Mazengarb and his colleagues are clearly of the view voting is a right they have apparently overlooked the fact that, as with many rights, it also comes with responsibilities.
One is that in Australia voting is compulsory. Do we really want a situation where school-aged children are being fined or threatened with prosecution over their failure to vote?
Mr Spence was on the money when he said pursuing any course of action that could lead to criminal penalties for minors was "unacceptable".
If it ever came to pass that we had, as he suggested, 16-year-old Cabinet members cutting high school classes to attend assembly debates, the ACT would be a national laughing stock.
The Greens are right when they say we need to do more to engage young people in civic affairs. But placing those we want to encourage at unnecessary risk of breaching the law is not the best way to go about it.
