Make It 16 Incorporated v Attorney-General
2022 New Zealand Supreme Court judgment / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Make It 16 Incorporated v Attorney-General is a 2022 landmark decision of the Supreme Court of New Zealand in which the court held that the country's current voting age of 18 was discriminatory.[1][2] The court found that the provisions in the Electoral Act 1993 and Local Electoral Act 2001 that set the voting age of 18 years was an unjustified limitation on the right to be free from age discrimination in section 19 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 (BORA).[3][4]
Make It 16 Incorporated v Attorney-General | |
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Court | Supreme Court of New Zealand |
Decided | 21 November 2022 (2022-11-21) |
Citation(s) | [2022] NZSC 134 |
Case history | |
Prior action(s) | |
Court membership | |
Judges sitting | Winkelmann CJ, Glazebrook, O'Regan, France, Kós JJ |
Case opinions | |
appeal allowed; declarations granted (per Winkelmann CJ, Glazebrook, O'Regan and France JJ) dissent (Kós J) | |
Keywords | |
In response to the judgment, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern subsequently announced that a bill to lower the voting age to 16 would be debated in the New Zealand Parliament, requiring a supermajority to pass.[5] Polling after the judgment by The New Zealand Herald showed that 79 per cent of respondents did not support lowering the voting age.[6] Stuff reported in December 2022 that 73 mayors and councillors across the country had signed a letter supporting the Make It 16 campaign.[7]