Socialist calls for votes for 16-year-olds

By Bill Mason BRISBANE — "The right to vote should be extended to 16 and 17 year-olds", Zanny Begg, the Democratic Socialist candidate for the seat of Brisbane in the March 2 federal election, said in response to the launch of Paul Keating's youth policy on January 29. "Young people are tired of being used as political pawns by the two major parties. They want political rights as well as economic rights", Begg said. "The Democratic Socialist campaign calls for Labor and the Coalition to pledge support for a basic democratic right to vote for youth, just as Nelson Mandela has advocated in South Africa." Begg, who was the central organiser of the mass high school walkouts against nuclear testing in October, said: "Young people have shown that they are political. Young people suffer under the decisions of the government in employment, education and the environment. "They should have a say over how these policies are decided. They don't want tokenistic Young Australia Councils, they want a real say. It would change the political landscape radically if political parties had to take the views of young people more seriously." Begg is a 23-year-old fine arts student at Griffith University. She is the Brisbane organiser of Resistance and on the Resistance national executive. The Democratic Socialists are also running biochemist Coral Wynter in Brisbane, in the seat of Griffith. For more information on the Democratic Socialist campaign, contact Jim McIlroy on (07) 3254 0565.