Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. Well I want to acknowledge the young people in the gallery today—you might be watching or listening at home—who want to participate in New Zealand's liberal democracy and who want to have the opportunity to vote. I really really appreciate your enthusiasm.However the law currently says that that franchise is not available until you're 18 years old. I recognise that for some of you you feel you want to make a contribution now to choose with the vote the political party that best represents your interests. And you may question given what you feel is your maturity and your ability to make decisions about so many other aspects in your life why it is that you're not afforded this particular right. In many ways voting is the ultimate last rite of passage for New Zealanders isn't it? It used to be a 21st birthday party because 21 was the age where you could legally drink. It used to be 15—15 for some of us—which was the age when we could obtain a driver's licence. But 18 is the age that Parliament has decided.Now even though the various courts have pointed out quite rightly that the fact that 16-year-olds are not able to vote is inconsistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act I would also point out that that is not uncommon—much legislation is introduced to Parliament that is not consistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. Where it is inconsistent the Ministry of Justice provides a report to Parliament called a bill of rights assessment". A New Zealand Bill of Rights Act compliance report is often provided where a piece of legislation infringes on rights that are set out but for good reason but it's always up to Parliament to balance what that reason is.The Ministry of Justice is responsible for scrutinising proposed legislation to look at whether it meets New Zealand Bill of Rights Act requirements. The Ministry of Justice advises the AttorneyGeneral on all bills—so they do this for all bills with the exception of appropriation bills which are the ones that the Government uses to legitimise its Budgets. It assesses all legislation to confirm whether it's consistent with the Act and if the Attorney-General agrees that there are any issues then they must notify the House.Now the section 7 reports prepared by the Ministry of Justice are not binding on the House they're not binding on Governments but they present very clear alternatives. If there are to be laws passed by this House which infringe on people's rights or treat people differently for any reason then the bar the threshold needs to be very high. But it's up to Parliament which is sovereign to make those decisions.In this case ACT's justice spokesperson Nicole McKee who sat on this committee and considered this report proposed that ACT should not support the conclusions and recommendations that the Government amend the Local Electoral Act 2001 to provide for a minimum voting age of 16 years in local elections. ACT does not agree with that I'm sorry. And ACT does not agree with the Government investigating lowering the minimum voting age in general elections to 16.There are a number of reasons for that. It's because firstly 16-year-olds ACT believes have a whole lot of other things that they should be focused on with their lives such as study work sport community life community work and that voting in parliamentary elections is something that can reasonably be delayed until you reach the age of 18 without any risk of infringing your rights in any great way.Hon Willow-Jean Prime: Really—really?SIMON COURT: Yeah really—really.Hon Julie Anne Genter: It's not what the Supreme Court said.SIMON COURT: Well ACT disagrees with the Supreme Court. But we do agree with Justice Kós who explained that section 12 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act which specifically states that 18-year-olds have the right to vote does trump section 19 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act as to freedom from discrimination. And it is correct that when a bill is set out the principles and purpose of the bill are in the early clauses—say 3 4 and 5—and that the other matters that explain how a bill works are in subsequent clauses and there is a hierarchy to assessing those clauses. So ACT would agree with Justice Kós that section 12 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act does trump section 19. But of course it's up to Parliament to decide and ACT believes that the status quo is acceptable.We do appreciate your passion and enthusiasm for participating in parliamentary democracy by being able to cast your vote. Eighteen isn't that long to wait. We hope when you turn up you'll appreciate the reasoned rational liberal arguments put forward by the ACT Party and you cast your party vote for ACT when you get a chance. With that I'd like to close our submission. Thank you very much."