Why then do we continue to alienate the most visionary of our citizens? Why are our youth left without a voice? When we keep marching out tired old clichés about children being our future, why do we frustrate them further, by telling them they are too young to have their views heard or at least, for their views to count for anything.

At a time when youth are finding their voice, becoming passionate about their beliefs, perhaps developing an idealism that should be nurtured and empowered, we, as a society,  can offer little more than criticism of their graffiti, or the clothes they wear, or their music or any other avenue they have to express themselves.

We have become used to ignoring the views of our youth, because their views do not count in our democracy.

It could be argued quite fervently that this election has seen the most deplorable focus on the lowest, common populist denominator in our history. Most older people are so weighed down by their material responsibilities that they have no time to look at the bigger picture for Australia, no time for idealism, no time even for the future.

Look to voting trends to see that issues that impact older people are short term concerns such as tax, health care and superannuation, whilst for younger people it is the longer term issues such as the environment, education and world peace. There is a strong case to be made therefore, that the more responsible voter for the good of Australia’s future is to be found in our youth. Older people are generally about personal economic pragmatism, whilst our youth are idealistically more likely to be looking to solve the issues of our world.

What is proposed is a non mandatory vote for 13-17 year olds. Our youth could themselves decide if they felt passionate about voting, and if so could vote with exactly the same privileges available to every other citizen. It might even be possible to introduce a qualifying exam, just as we do not let drivers on the road without a license, we might contend that before kids are let loose in our society’s democracy, they pass a test.  This would encourage more engagement in our society by our youth, rather than the current disillusionment youth experience.

We are starting a campaign on this site to gauge support for the idea. It begins with our online petition to the Prime Minister, and depending on the response, we will decide on how to develop partnerships to best develop the campaign. Please let us know if you have any ideas.

The most potent form of discrimination and prejudice in our 21^st century society is against our youth. It is time that politicians listened, our society paid attention and our kids were heard. They really are our future and they deserve a real voice, in a real democracy they deserve a real vote.