Transcript: James Paterson on ABC 774 Melbourne

Transcript of James Paterson, former ALSF Vice-President on Mornings with Jon Faine on ABC 774 Melbourne, 27 July 2009, 10.45am

EO & E

Subjects: Labor’s plan to lower the voting age

JON FAINE:

There is a proposal, though, to lower the voting age in Australia that is being considered by the Federal Government, and it will be interesting to see how far it goes. Should 16 and 17 year olds be allowed to vote? It’s part of what the Special Minister of State Joe Ludwig is looking at with the second electoral green paper which is open for consultation. We’ve invited a representative of the Young Liberals and Young Labor to speak to us about 16 and 17 year olds being entitled to vote. James Paterson is President of the Victorian Young Liberals. James good morning.

JAMES PATERSON:

Thanks Jon.

FAINE:

And we have Beth Edwards, who is a senior Vice-President of Young Labor. Beth good morning to you.

BETH EDWARDS:

Good morning Jon, thanks for having me.

FAINE:

James should 16 and 17 year olds be allowed to vote?

PATERSON:

No I don’t believe so. It is a very smart political ploy by the Labor Party to cover up for their anti-youth agenda. I mean we have seen at a Federal level the introduction of the alcopops tax which seriously inhibits the lifestyle choices of young people. We are seeing the rollback of Voluntary Student Unionism which will amount to a poll tax on every young person studying at University. And we saw at the weekend the Employment Minister Mark Arbib saying that, you know, young workers just have to suck it and deal with it in the new economy and get ready to flip burgers.

FAINE:

Beth?

EDWARDS:

Umm I think there is two issues with this proposal one about lowering the age and the other also being that it would be an optional voting system, I think optional voting in Australia in any form is not a good idea.

FAINE:

And are you saying any comment in relation to James’ claim that this is all a Labor Party ploy?

EDWARDS:

Umm, well, I don’t think so, I think that the Labor Party has a better track record of engaging younger voters, umm, than any Liberal Government ever has so it would be seen as a threat to the Liberals because I think engaging a youth vote would be beneficial to the ALP, but by the same token I don’t, umm, think it is a good idea, 18 is an arbitrary age that we define for drinking, for driving and for voting, there is some people who are politically engaged at a younger age and by the same token there is people at the age of 50 who aren’t politically engaged and they have a right to vote so I think the idea of moving the age around doesn’t really make sense.

FAINE:

I’ll come back to James in a moment but Beth I’d suggest to you that it wouldn’t favour either of your parties if you lowered the voting age it would favour the Greens and non-mainstream parties the most.

EDWARDS:

Umm, yeah that’s quite possible, I think the other reason that this isn’t a good idea is because if its an optional system it would involve political parties, umm, trying to mass, umm, campaign to young people, umm, in schools and if it is an optional system it really has the ability for it to become a rorted system.

FAINE:

A rorted system?

EDWARDS:

Yes.

FAINE:

Ok. James Paterson what do you make of the idea that in fact it wouldn’t favour the Labor or the Liberal parties but minor parties and the Greens.

PATERSON:

I think you are right Jon but I think anything that favours the Greens ultimately favours the Labor Party. We know that preferences flow very strongly from the Greens to the Labor Party. But I just want to come back to something that Beth said, and that is that the Labor Party very good at engaging with young people. That may well be the case politically but we know on a policy level they have very anti-young people agenda. In Victoria anyone who’d like to go out for a drink after 2am knows that the Victorian Labor Government has a very anti-youth agenda and is happy to lock people out of bars late at night.

FAINE:

In fact it is the State Opposition, the Liberal Party, that calls for even tougher measures on those laws, James, than the Government has even introduced.

PATERSON:

I think you’ll find Jon that the Liberal Party spokesperson on the issue, Michael O’Brien, has said that lockouts are not the answer and that policing in the city late at night is the answer to solve crime.

FAINE:

Yes but they have called for tougher measures against bars and on the regulation and sale of alcohol and you could hardly say that that’s then the Labor Party being partisan here, and in fact it’s your colleagues in the Liberal Party calling for even tougher measures on those regards.

PATERSON:

Well I think you are missing the point Jon. The Liberal Party opposes lockouts. Of course the Liberal Party would support taking action against bar owners that don’t provide appropriate security for their venues and that don’t cooperate with police to tackle crime, which is a serious issue in the inner city. But we don’t support lockouts and that’s something that was a clear Labor Party policy that discriminated against young people – law abiding or not.

FAINE:

So you see this through the prism of either state politics or electoral preference, you don’t see it as something where the big parties can see some greater interest in strengthening democracy?

PATERSON:

Look as I said I think it is a cynical partisan political ploy by the Australian Labor Party to cover up for their anti-youth agenda. They’ve got no intention of actually introducing this. It would be a radical change and Joe Ludwig is just floating this to cover up for the negative press they received over the weekend about Mark Arbib’s comments that young workers should get ready to flip burgers in hamburger joints.

FAINE:

James thank you. James Paterson, President of the Victorian Young Liberals, and Beth thank you very much as well.

EDWARDS:

Thank you John.

FAINE:

Beth Edwards, senior Vice-President of Young Labor.

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