by Ruth Woodhouse

Created on: May 07, 2008

No, I don't believe eighteen is too young to vote. Many eighteen-year-olds would be firing on all fours to be involved in the political process. These days young people are much more aware of political issues than they were in the past. After all, this is the information age we are living in and a lot of kids are absorbing and processing news and current affairs as part of their daily technological diet.

They are possibly far more conscious of which neglected minority groups in society desperately need more help than many apathetic people twice or three times their age would be. Long before they are eighteen a lot of intelligent young people would be taking an enormous amount of interest in politics and would be eagerly awaiting their opportunity to get involved in it to a greater or lesser degree.

As funny as it may seem to many people, even my six-year-old son would have loved to vote in the last Australian federal election in November 2007. He knew beyond the shadow of a doubt which party he wanted to win government for the next term and why. I was the family's swinging voter, who remained uncertain who I was going to vote for till the final day.

My boy came with me on election day and later told me he had written in pencil on the cardboard booth next to me, "Vote Labor for our future". A couple of weeks later he met our local member of parliament in her electoral office and had his photo taken with her for a recent newsletter. His statement of why he wanted Labor to win was also written down to be quoted in the newsletter. Even as a little boy, his views were being taken seriously.

Now, while I'm not about to make the ludicrous suggestion that any six-year-old (or even sixteen-year-old) should be allowed to actually vote, I just wish to make the point that there are many young people who are, in fact, very passionate about the future of their country. On that basis, they should be allowed the opportunity to vote at the earliest age a reasonable percentage of the population would deem appropriate.

These days our youth come of age at 18. Now I'm not entirely certain I agree with that. Many young people are still very immature in many ways at 18 and, to my mind, 21 ought to still be the big milestone that would more appropriately represent adulthood for the majority.

Even then you would get some that would still be far from mature and responsible - but we can't put off the public recognition of such an attainment any further because of the minority who fail to

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