2026-10-12
Senator Mehreen Faruqi and ACT Greens Deputy Leader Andrew Braddock will launch a campaign tonight at University of Canberra to extend voting rights to Permanent Residents and 16-and 17-year-olds. This campaign will include tabling legislation during the next sitting of the ACT Legislative Assembly.
Under current ACT enrolment rules, voting in ACT Legislative Assembly elections is restricted to Australian citizens aged 18 and over, although 16- and 17-year-olds can enrol in advance.
The ACT Greens have previously committed to extending voting rights to permanent residents and lowering the voting age to 16.
The proposal is not without precedent. In New Zealand, qualifying non-citizen residents can vote in national elections, while Scotland allows foreign nationals with leave to remain, as well as 16- and 17-year-olds, to vote in Scottish Parliament and local government elections. Wales has also extended voting rights in devolved and local elections to 16- and 17-year-olds and qualifying foreign citizens.
Closer to home you only need to be a resident to vote in City of Sydney and Melbourne City Council Elections.
If passed, the change will not affect eligibility to vote at federal elections, only ACT elections.
Quotes attributable to Andrew Braddock MLA:
"Permanent residents can spend years living in Canberra, paying taxes, raising families, running businesses and contributing to their communities, while having no say in choosing the representatives making decisions that affect their lives."
"When it comes to choosing the people making decisions about their homes, transport, schools, healthcare and communities, their voices do not count.
"At a time when migrants are too often reduced to migration numbers to be cut or used as political scapegoats, Canberra can send a different message: if you have built your life here and contribute to this community, you deserve a meaningful say in its future.
"A vote means politicians have to listen to you, engage with your concerns and ultimately be accountable to you.
"This is not some untested democratic experiment. Comparable democracies have already expanded their franchise beyond citizenship or the traditional voting age."
"Our broader reform would also give 16- and 17-year-old Canberrans voting rights. Young people will have to live with the consequences of Government decisions longer than anyone else, surely they should have a say in their future."
"These reforms ask a basic democratic question: who gets to have a say in the future of the community they belong to? The ACT Greens believe our democracy should include more of the people who make Canberra the diverse, multicultural and colourful city it is," Mr Braddock said.