She's not old enough to vote, but Lorde has thrown her weight behind the get out the vote message for this year's election.
In videos published this morning on YouTube, the 17-year old says: “There's just so much that relates to you as a young person that you should be voting on and you should be involved in, I think.”
“I know sometimes politics can seem like a bunch of old people ranting on the TV at each other, and it doesn’t feel particularly influenced by people like us, but I think that we are creative, I think that we have the kinds of ideas that will, just, revolutionise what it’s like to live in New Zealand.”
“All of these issues are too important for us not to be thinking about, for us not to be representing our peers in,” she says. “Right now, I don’t have a voice, and that’s why I need you to use yours in this election.”
The Electoral Commission also has a website full of videos on voting, filmed in a room full of ‘ordinary kiwis’.
And another website has been launched to encourage an interest in politics and voting by teenagers by engaging them online.
The website Vote Kiwi has been launched in Hamilton at two schools and will now be rolled out across all secondary schools in the country, Radio New Zealand reports.
On the website students can give their opinions on issues, initiate debate on any topic and vote in polls.
Vote Kiwi creator David Seedhouse said it gave young people the chance to express themselves by ultilising technology they knew and loved.
“They are so engaged about everything in the world, they are optimistic about the world, they think they can change the world,” he said.