The previous Ardern Labour government had considered a ‘test’ to drop the voting age for national elections, but the new tri-party New Zealand government has axed that initiative to lower the voting age for local government elections. Local Government Minister Simeon Brown announced that the government did not support the Electoral (Lowering Voting Age for Local Elections and Polls) Legislation Bill, and that the Justice Committee had been requested to end consideration of it. The previous Ardern-led Labour government had agreed, in principle, to consider lowering the voting age in local elections as a test towards lowering the age for national elections. However, Mr. Brown argued that the focus for local councils should be on delivering local infrastructure and services, not implementing a new voting age regime, which he deemed a costly distraction.
The push to drop the voting age was driven by the group, Make It 16, which sought to “uplift and strengthen youth voices by lowering the voting age to 16.” Countries that have adopted a 16-plus voting age include Argentina, Austria, Brazil, and others. Make It 16 took a case to the Wellington High Court in 2020 to argue that a voting age of 18 was unjustified age discrimination. After an initial ruling against them, the case was taken to the Court of Appeal, which upheld the previous ruling, but was then granted leave to apply to the Supreme Court, which ruled the current age limit was discriminatory. Consequently, Prime Minister Ardern announced that a bill would be raised in Parliament to debate the issue, with a supermajority required for it to pass.