Increasing voter participation

Democracy functions best when there is active participation of a large proportion of its citizens. Increasing voter participation should always be an objective of government. The means of achieving this cannot be obtained by simply lowering the voting age. Rather, efforts can be directed to forming citizens who understand the political system and equipping them to engage responsibly.

In response of a Bill calling for the lowering of the voting age to 16, the ACL argued for better education for students to understand the democratic processes and the functioning of the Australian government and for the retention of 18 as the age for eligibility to vote. 

Read the submission here