There’s a fundamental arbitrariness to almost any voting age. Except one. 

I have a modest proposal.  

Every person in New Zealand should be represented in Parliament, regardless of age. So the voting age should be zero.  

You might raise an obvious objection. If sixteen-year-olds, eighteen-year-olds, and even some thirty-year-olds are of dubious maturity and suitability for the franchise, how on earth might a ten-year-old or an infant cast an informed ballot? 

The answer is just as obvious. 

As natural guardians, parents exercise many rights on their children's behalf. In some cases, grandparents or others act as guardians instead. They sign the permission sheets for school trips and everything else.  

Guardians would vote on behalf of the children in their care.   

Under my modest proposal, guardians would continue to exercise this right, on behalf of their children, until one of two things happened. 

If parents thought their child was ready for it, they could pass the ballot over to the child – at their discretion. 

If a child positively demonstrated readiness for adult responsibilities by leaving the home and becoming financially independent, guardians would lose the proxy ballot if they had not already relinquished it. 

For some Kiwis, this could mean a voting age much lower than 18. For others, the voting age could well increase substantially. In either case, Kiwis would get the vote when they were ready for it – either as deemed by their parents, or as demonstrated by their actions.  

I have a fourteen-year-old and a twelve-year-old. I wouldn’t give either the ballot yet. But either could earn it from me, through appropriate demonstrated knowledge of civics and economics. It could encourage them to be more attentive to their studies.  

There is a flip side to this, of course.  

With advancing years, parents sometimes become dependent on their children.  

It may come to pass that, in my decrepitude, I become senile and require my children to take up power of attorney. Or that I become financially reliant on them. In either case, the roles would reverse and my children would exercise the ballot on my behalf.  

My solution resolves the inherent arbitrariness of any fixed age by replacing it with parental discretion.  

That my solution would provide many more ballots to those who, like me, are in their 40s (the true Greatest Generation), is purely coincidental. 

Make it Zero.