Australian Electoral Commission Street Address: Level 9, 1 King William Street, Adelaide, SA, 5000 Postal Address: Reply

Paid 1748, Adelaide, SA 5001 Contact: Simone Ball Phone Number: 13 23 26 Fax Number: (08) 8237 6584

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 16, 2011

Australian Electoral Commission begins new youth-oriented campaign

The Australian Electoral Commission has today announced the commencement of a new campaign to encourage Australias youth to enrol to vote, as the statistics regarding youth voting fail to drastically improve. The campaign, called Voting: Its your right. Use it. is designed to raise awareness in the younger community about the importance of enrolling to vote, and using that given vote to have a say in the Australian state and federal elections. The Australian Electoral Commissions media advisor, Phil Diak, hopes there will be a change in trends thanks to this campaign. Politics is an important part of Australian life. Were hoping that this campaign will encourage all of those people who are eligible to enrol to vote that they should do so, so they can have their opinion counted. Mr Diak said today. There has been a startling amount of disinterest in politics lately. The drama surrounding the 2010 election and the whole idea of minority government confused the people who didnt understand politics in the first place, and those who were interested politics were dismayed by the trivial nature of the minority government issue. Mr Diak said. Youth enrolments were slightly up at the last election compared to the 2007 Federal election, but were hoping that by starting this campaign now in preparation for a 2012 election, we will keep those numbers strong. This latest campaign by the Australian Electoral Commission has an extra facet of education added to it. According to the latest election statistics, 5.5% of the votes counted in the 2010 Federal election were informal meaning that either they deliberately werent filled out as a form of protest, or they were filled out incorrectly and therefore could not be counted. Were running an education campaign regarding the correct way to place a vote, in the hope that there will be less informal votes at the next election. Mr Diak declared. We also want to educate young people about the importance of being given the right to vote although its something we take for granted here in Australia, there are some countries around the world that dont have the luxury of elections. We want the Australian youth to be aware of the privilege they are being given. The Australian Electoral Commission confirmed that advertisements will be introduced to the media within the next week, and education sessions will begin around Australia at the commencement of the new school year. For more information, or to enrol, contact the Australian Electoral Commission on 13 23 26, or visit www.aec.gov.au.