Pauline Hanson wants to raise the voting age to 21

Pauline Hanson wants to raise the voting age to 21

PAULINE Hanson wants Australia to look at raising the legal voting age to 21 in a move that would slash the nation’s youth vote by nearly one million people.

The One Nation leader argued young people had never held a job or paid taxes when she raised the idea this morning.

It sparked another fiery clash with Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, whose party wants to lower the voting age to 16.

“They don’t have any idea,” Senator Hanson told Channel Seven’s Sunrise program.

“They’ve never held a job, they’ve never paid any taxes, they have no understanding of politics — and you want to reduce it because you think it will increase the Green’s vote. They have no idea.”

Senator Hanson-Young fired back, saying Senator Hanson was “out of touch” and raising the voting age was a “terrible” idea.

The One Nation leader accused her of being “un-Australian”.

The Greens’ plan to drop the voting age to 16 would bolster the youth vote by almost 580,500 people, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics Census data.

Australia’s voting age was last changed more than 40 years ago when it was lowered from 21 to 18 in 1973 after a worldwide push to allow youth the vote.

It was argued young people paid taxes and served their country in times of war, so they should be able to have a say on how the nation was governed.

The senators’ latest on-air spat this morning came amid a debate on the push to raise the legal smoking age to 21.

Both senators’ supported the idea, which has received the high-profile backing of billionaire and philanthropist Andrew Forrest who has also announced plans to sue “big tobacco” on behalf of smokers.

“I don’t know how the young ones can afford a pack of cigarettes anymore anyway,” Senator Hanson said.

“The cost of smoking is horrendous. But if it’s going to help the kids, and they won’t get on smoking, they will get the smokes somewhere else, but raising the age limit makes commonsense to me. I’d also look at raising the age of voting as well to 21.

“I think that these things need to be debated. I like to hear the people’s opinion. But I’m all for it.”