Lowering Voting Age To 16 Essay

The current affair of lowering the legal voting age, has been a concern brimming in the Australian society, for a while now. The labour leader, Bill Shorten, pledged to lower the voting age to 16 if elected. In response to Shorten's pledge, Judith Bessant adopts an indignant tone, in her opinion piece entitled "Lowering voting age to 16 just one step to restore public trust in politics", to unveil her support for Shorten, whilst also highlighting the flaws in his statements. Targeting the Australian public, she asserts that in order to be classified as a democratic society, for every new policy, whomever is affected, must be eligible to vote. She also debunks the widely spread notions that the youth are too inexperienced to commit good choices. Furthermore, Bessant …show more content…
She reinforces her headline which implies that the public has lost trust in politics, when she states young people do not engage in politics because they have "little or no faith" in politics. The author is focused on conveying this particular idea, and thus constantly repeats the phrase over and over again, to emphasise the inherent flaws prevalent amongst politicians. Bessant repeats her contention, that the lies of the politicians have disadvantaged so many of the Australian society, exclusively the "vulnerable" youth. The term "vulnerable" associated with the youth, sparks imagery of defenceless of young children that are prey of the politicians. This stimulates fear amongst parents for the future of their children hands of the current lying government. This fear is further inclined when Bessant provides data of the "increasing youth employment, constant cuts to public health and transport, as well as higher education debt", since parents are made to realise the dark fate of their