Lowering the Voting Age in Australia

Presenter:

• Professor Lisa Hill, Professor of Politics, University of Adelaide

Chair:

• Associate Professor Rodrigo Praino, Flinders University

About the talk:

Although 86% of countries that hold elections have a minimum age of 18, Australians are currently debating whether or not the legal voting age should be lowered to 16. In 2018 the Australian parliament debated an electoral amendment to lower the national voting age to 16. Despite support from both the ALP and Greens, the bill failed. In this paper I discuss why this happened and why the ALP had good grounds for rejecting the model proposed by the Greens. I also consider what harms and benefits lowering the voting age might bring to Australian political life with specific reference to our unique voting arrangements.

About the Speaker:

Lisa Hill is a Professor of Politics at the University of Adelaide. Lisa was an ARC Senior Fellow (University of Adelaide) and a Fellow in the Political Science Program, Research School of Social Sciences, ANU. Prior to that she lectured for 7 years in the Department of Government, University of Sydney and, as a Rhodes Scholar, took a D.Phil. in Politics at the University of Oxford.

Her current areas of interest are: political theory, intellectual history, issues in electoral law and selected issues in Australian Politics. Lisa is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences of Australia