Voting age in election mix

Voters as young as 15 could be deciding the next election if some local candidates have their way.

The voting age and a number of other issues were debated at a Meet the Candidates event in Stratford last Tuesday.

Labour's Hamish McDouall and Internet Mana's Grant Keinzley said they supported the age being lowered, with Keinzley saying he would be happy for it to be dropped as low as 15. There was some confusion as he stated "as you can drive at that age, so why not vote". Corrected by members of the audience as to the correct driving age, Keinzley said he still felt the age could be lower than 18.

New Zealand First's Darroch Ball and Green's Robert Moore said that before lowering the voting age, civics should be taught in schools so new voters would understand the system, while National's Barbara Kuriger said she supported the current age of 18.

The event, organised by the Stratford District Youth Council and Stratford Rotary Club, was a chance for local voters to hear from the candidates standing in the Taranaki-King Country, and Whanganui electorates.

The Whanganui electorate has now been changed to include Stratford.

A focus of the event was to inform young people, and encourage them to vote.

National's Chester Borrows and Labour's Hamish McDouall both talked about why they were the better candidate to represent Whanganui at national level, while Kuriger and Moore are contesting the Taranaki-King Country seat.

Roberts, Ball and Keinzley campaigned for the party vote at the meeting.

Each candidate was given eight minutes to speak about who they were, what three issues were most important to the region, and what three issues were important to the nation.

The audience was also invited to submit written questions, which were asked by co-chairs Chris James and Barrie Smith.

One of the topics discussed was foreign ownership, with a number of local farmers worried that foreign buyers were raising the price of land and moving it out of the reach of the average farmer.

Borrows argued that that was not the case, and said only about 1.5 per cent of New Zealand's land was in foreign hands.

Ball and McDouall were against the sale of land.

"We [Labour] think only New Zealand people should be able to buy New Zealand land," McDouall said.

The candidates were also quizzed on why the political parties always seemed to be working against each other.

Borrows and McDouall both said the parties have worked together on occasions, and Borrows said it was important to work together when they could.

Advanced voting began on September 3 with polling day on September 20.