Bill Shorten calls for voting age to be lowered to 16; REA Group buys iProperty: Midday Roundup

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has called for the voting age to be lowered from 18 to 16 in order to tackle young people’s disengagement with politics.

Shorten made the suggestion at the New South Wales Young Labor conference in Sydney over the weekend, according to the ABC.

“There is a democracy deficit between young people who are disengaged in the decisions of the Liberal government, and a sense that nothing can change,” Shorten said.

“I believe that it is important we tackle the apathy and cynicism of young people towards politics. My message to the Liberal Party is let’s trust our young people because they’re the people who are going to have to deal with the decisions that we’re making right now.”

REA Group buys iProperty

REA Group, a News Corporation subsidiary and the company behind realestate.com.au, has announced it will acquire online property company, iProperty Group.

In a statement to shareholders this morning, REA Group said it plans to acquire 100% of the share capital of iProperty, citing its plans to expand into South-East Asia as a “logical extension” of REA’s market in Australia, with the decision underpinned by “highly attractive macroeconomic factors with strong growth prevalent across the region”.

REA currently holds a 22.7% stake in iProperty, according toFairfax, and will look to buy the remainder of the company at $4 per share.

iProperty owns leading property portals in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand and Indonesia, according to the statement.

The deal is expected boost the fortunes of Patrick Grove, the BRW Rich Lister who founded iProperty parent company Catcha Group.

Shares fall on opening

Local shares fell on the back of a poor showing from Wall Street on Friday, which saw the Dow Jones fall by more than half a per cent by close.

Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said this morning the local share market will likely drift lower this morning “with little obvious reason to bring buyers back to key mining and bank stocks in any strength”.

He said this morning’s release of building approvals data for last month will be “an interesting number” leading into tomorrow’s RBA meeting.

“If this trend is confirmed, the relative importance of nascent recoveries in other areas of the economy such as manufacturing and tourism will only increase,” he said.

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark was down 0.7%, falling 38.7 points to 5200.7 points at 11.42am AEST. On Friday, the Dow Jones closed down 0.52%, falling 92.26 points to 17663.5 points.