16 year olds should be able to vote and stand for office, says McNulty

A Labour Party candidate for the Wellington City Council, Ben McNulty, running in the Northern ward (Johnsonville, Tawa, Newlands, etc) believes 16 year olds should have the right to vote.

He told The Platform’s host Michael Laws that because a 16 year old is able to leave school, own a firearm, join the armed forces, and legally have sexual intercourse, the right to vote should be given to them.

McNulty believes that there are “dumb, stupid, 16-year-olds” and argues they should vote because there are “dumb, stupid adults who are voting, too”. Sixteen-year-olds, says McNulty, have a similar level of maturity to dumb adults who vote.

Laws, a former Mayor of Wanganui, educates McNulty that 16 year olds can join the armed forces but only as a cadet and they will never see active service until they turn 18. McNulty throws out another of his straw-man arguments and makes light of it, by saying, “let’s not crystal gaze World War 3.”

He further adds that 16 year olds likely won’t have “material impact” on swinging the election, and that he’s more concerned about how the country increases voting participation, and “this is where it starts.”

He agrees 16 and 17 year olds will mostly vote Labour or Green.

BUT IT GETS WORSE …

Laws asks McNulty, “If I can vote at 16 or 17 in your world, can I stand for council as well?”

McNulty: “Yep, I think that’s right! If you can vote, you can stand.”

BEN MCNULTY BELIEVES THAT 16 AND 17 YEAR OLD CITY COUNCILLORS ARE MATURE ENOUGH TO DECIDE THE FUTURE OF WELLINGTON CITY, THE SPENDING OF RATEPAYERS’ MONEY AND SIGNING OFF ON MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR CONTRACTS!

BEN MCNULTY WOULD HAVE NO PROBLEMS SITTING BESIDE A 16-YEAR-OLD CITY COUNCILLOR!

Watch the interview video below

Ben McNulty espouses LABOUR PARTY POLICY in this interview. Former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, in exile, and the top echelon of the Labour Party in 2022 wanted to lower the voting age to 16. But they knew it would be a conscience vote and wouldn’t pass in Parliament, because the then sane-minded MPs in that party (are there any left?) would have crossed the floor.

If McNumpty gets voted onto council again this year, Wellington, you have only yourself to blame!

YET ANOTHER REASON WHY PARTY POLITICS DOESN’T BELONG AROUND THE COUNCIL TABLE!

In the interview, McNulty admits that his children (aged 1 and 4) are a lot smarter than he was at that age, which is a low bar. McNulty looks like he did the interview in a toilet.

Are they his university qualifications hanging on the wall? (If it is the bog, then it’s an appropriate place for him to hang them!)