The fight to lower New Zealand’s voting age continues and today, it’s gone to the Supreme Court - the highest court in Aotearoa.
Lawyers for Make It 16 - a youth-led group calling for the voting age to be lowered to 16 - will make claims at the Supreme Court in Wellington that preventing 16 and 17-year-olds from voting is “unjustified age discrimination and therefore a breach of human rights”.
The group's legal team will argue for a Declaration of Inconsistency.
This is a formal statement made by a court that says a rule is inconsistent with fundamental human rights. In this case, Make It 16 believes that teenagers under 18 not being allowed to vote is a breach of fundamental human rights.
Make It 16 co-director Cate Tipler says “that declaration is what we are here for today”.
“If the Supreme Court issues a declaration, it will not overturn the law but it will send a strong moral message to Parliament that this has to change.
“It will pressure our politicians to look at this serious human rights issue and how a voting age of 16 will uplift and strengthen the voices of young people in Aotearoa.”
‘Our movement is much bigger than just the courts’
In May the Government announced a review of New Zealand’s electoral law. It will be led by an independent panel and will look at election rules such as voting age and overseas voting.
Regardless of the outcome, Tipler says the group’s petition to lower the voting age has received almost 6,000 signatures so far.
“Our movement is much bigger than just the courts,” Tipler says.
“We also recently handed in an open letter with the signatures of more than 70 local government elected members in support of a voting age of 16 for local elections.”
“It is particularly outrageous that in local elections, due to the ratepayer roll, property owners can vote multiple times, but 16 and 17-year-olds like me can’t even vote once.”
How Make It 16 got to the Supreme Court
When the group took its case to the High Court, its lawyers argued that parts of the Electoral Act 1993 and the Local Electoral Act 2001, which sets the lowest voting age at 18 was “inconsistent” with the right to be free from age discrimination, as part of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990.
But the High Court found that although setting the voting age at 18 did discriminate against 16 and 17 year olds, it was a “limitation on the right against age discrimination that was justified in democratic society” and voting age provisions did not breach the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990.
Make It 16 later took its case, between itself and the Attorney-General, to the Court of Appeal.
In a judgment released last December, the Court of Appeal judgment found the Attorney-General had failed to “discharge the burden of proof” to justify the existing age limit.
Looking at the justification of limiting the rights of 16 and 17 year olds was required, the judgment found.
“The matter is intensely and quintessentially political involving the democratic process itself,” the judgment said.
“Further the matter is very much in the public arena already including being part of a recently announced review of electoral law. We choose to exercise restraint and decline the application for declarations.”
In April, Make It 16 was granted leave to appeal its case to the Supreme Court.
Leave to appeal means the Supreme Court will hear a case because it is satisfied that it is necessary in the interests of justice.
In a judgment of the court, released on the Supreme Court's website in April, along with the granting of leave of appeal, it said "the approved question is whether the Court of Appeal was correct to dismiss the appeal".
The Supreme Court hearing takes place from 10am to 4pm today.
Top Image: A voting sign. (File photo) Photo: iStock
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