Younger college students have mixed views on changing voting age

It's been said that lowering the voting age could help engage more people - yet Tauranga residents have expressed mixed views on the idea.

The idea came from Children's Commissioner Andrew Becroft, who said New Zealand should consider changing the voting age to 16.

The age was permanently changed to 16 in Scotland after three-quarters of people aged 16 and 17 turned out to vote in a referendum on leaving the United Kingdom. UK Electoral Reform Society chief executive Katie Ghose said they voted in larger numbers than people aged 18 to 24, and that people who voted young got into the habit.

But Tauranga MP Simon Bridges said lowering the voting age was not something the Government was considering.

He said the idea had been raised in Parliament, but had never gained much support.

And NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell said it was not a good idea to lower the voting age because people under 18 did not have a deep enough understanding of politics to make an informed decision.

"At 16 years old they are only just learning to drive and they can't get into the armed forces."

But Tauranga's Labour candidate, Jan Tinetti, said political parties were struggling to engage young people and lowering the voting age could be investigated.

"If we worked through political ideas with them earlier, talking it through, then maybe it would be a good thing," she said. "It's definitely worthy of an investigation."

Ms Tinetti said the party already had some amazing young people under 18 who were engaged in politics.

The Bay of Plenty Times visited Otumoetai College to find out what students thought.

Harmony Kahotea, 16, thought the age should be lowered because more young people needed to think about the ways changes the Government made affected them.

She said 16-year-olds had the maturity to have a voice for what was happening in New Zealand.

Toria Park, 16, said that if youth were educated about voting then it should definitely be a option.

There were still issues to iron out though, she said.

"A lot of youths don't care about Government and politics so they might make an uninformed vote."

She said if she was educated more about each political party in school, she would like to vote this year.

Shelby Bell, 18, said there were benefits and drawbacks if the age were to be lowered.

"Young teenagers are really easily influenced, especially by what their parents say."

Nick Tinholt, 17, said he was starting to understand how government decisions affected him.

"I feel that when I was 16 I had an interest in politics, but there was no way I could have possibly known who I would have voted for."

Lewis Hofland, 18, thought the voting age was low enough already and 16 would be too young.

"There's a lot of people who won't want to vote, or won't care enough to vote."

Otuemoetai College students Lewis Hofland, Toria Park, Nick Tinholt and Harmony Kahotea. Photo/Andrew Warner

Otumoetai College principal Dave Randell had a mixed reaction to the idea.

"How ready are these young people and how interested are they in politics in the future?" he asked. "There are probably some students who are."