7 Oct 2020

Challenge to minimum voting age fails in High Court

10:21 pm on 7 October 2020

Campaigners wanting to lower the voting age to 16 have failed to convince the High Court the current law is unjustified age discrimination.

The Make it 16 campaign argued 16 year olds' should be allowed to vote.

Photo: Supplied

The youth-led campaign, Make it 16, asked the court to rule that restricting voting to those aged 18 and over is inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act.

But in a judgement released today the court says the current law is a justified limit on the right to be free from discrimination on the basis of age.

The court says there are other laws which also make a distinction between those over and under the age of 18.

It also notes that the arguments for and against lowering the voting age are complex and wide-ranging policy work needs to be done before there are changes.

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