Jane Clifton, in her “Young and voteless” column (Politics, December 3), makes a number of interesting points regarding lowering the voting age to 16.
A key part of the Supreme Court’s judgment was the inconsistencies regarding age (eg, paying taxes, age of consent), yet ironically there have been a number of appeals in the courts in which a key defence argument has been that teenagers and children didn’t have the neurological development of adults. Admittedly, as Clifton notes, you could well argue that many adult voters suffer from the same issue.
However, a voter is considered to be an adult, therefore here’s a question for those who are advocating the change of voter age to 16: are they prepared to accept other, less-attractive, logical consequential legal changes such as the lowering of adult criminal responsibility to 16+ (ie, being tried as an adult instead of in the Youth Court) and the prospect of being drafted into the armed forces?
Julius Williams
(Palmerston North)
Caeden Tipler, co-director of the campaign Make It 16, makes an interesting point (, December 3) that leaves me asking: Is 16 too young to vote, to drive a car, to drink alcohol? I would say “yes”.
