WORD around the family traps this week is that the 16-year-old nephews are off to Asia to build beds in an orphanage.
It's all part of their school's community development program. Lucky kids.
If they can manage that, then maybe they should be able to vote.
In a paper entitled Strengthening Australia's Democracy, the Australian Government is asking whether the voting age should be lowered Australia-wide from 18 to 16.
Of course it should.
While Canada, New Zealand and the UK have so far stayed with 18 as the minimum age for people to exercise their political franchise, Austria, Brazil, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Cuba have gone for 16.
Apparently 16 and 17-year-olds can vote in some state elections in Germany.
In Germany and Italy, the voting age is lower for local elections than national elections, an idea I'm not averse to either.
Some argue leftist governments benefit from a youth vote, which could explain the predominance of South American countries leading the trend.
Certainly the Greens in Australia support lowering the voting age.
Whether they'll benefit is a moot point. Yet there is no guarantee that enabling this shift to direct democratic involvement for mid-teens actually results in a flush of younger voters.
One in five 18-to-24 year olds in Australia is not enrolled to vote.
For rural Australia, especially, the move offers a wonderful opportunity to engage kids responsibly in democracy.
We cry out for their involvement in every other aspect of life, urging them to join youth councils and community boards, so there's no reason we shouldn't seek their participation where it really counts - at the ballot box.
Before 1973 you had to be 21 to vote in Australia. Sounds dated, doesn't it?
Kids are doing plenty of "adult" things by the age of 16.
They can be working full time, be in the army, pay full fare on public transport, pay tax and have kids of their own. It seems strange to suggest that they can't vote.
Many 21st century 16-year-olders have already experienced more of the world than their 1970s equivalents.
At the age of 16, our annual school trip might have involved going to Canberra, or Alice Springs at a push, and probably by train.
It seems positively quaint when thinking the nephews are bound for a foreign country.
I do have some reservations about lowering the voting age.
Boosting civic education in schools must be a part of this move, so that 16 and 17-year-olds understand the value of their vote.
Plenty of adults don't, yet introducing voting at an earlier age compels us to upscale education in this area, which in turn offers an opportunity to improve the electorate's understanding about the voting process.
What unnerves me about it all is the thought that come any Monday morning post-assembly, high schools will be faced with slogan-bearing candidates lining up to flog promises in return for votes.
I'd want to protect them from that, but then again maybe kids won't tolerate "suits" flogging false promises the way adults seem to and we'll see rock-star candidates emerge instead. That could liven things up.
To have your say on this and other proposed electoral reforms, visit the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet website and look for the electoral-reform green paper. Submissions close November 27.
