Lights, camera, action.

[laughs] I'm Harry,

I'm 19 years old.

I'm mum’s middle and her favourite son.

[laughs]

And my name's Alex, and I'm Harry's mum.

Harry.

Yes.

I’m a carer to Harry,

who's my middle child.

I have 3 sons, and Harry

has an intellectual delay.

And along with that, he has a congenital medical condition

that potentially impacts every day of his life.

Some people cannot think

I vote, but I did.

As my choice who do I vote for.

Mum did help me from the very beginning.

Well, Harry's first,

election was the local government 2024 elections.

So once we've received our ballot packs,

we went through their statements,

highlighting key issues, and then broke

that down into very simple language that Harry understood.

We were at the dining room table.

Mum was helping me.

I picked, you know,

the numbers to the most important to the least important.

Looked at how these relate to his life and things that he uses

within his community.

And from that, Harry was able to move these papers around and prioritise

who was his number one preference to 3, 4, 5 and so on.

I can do it on my own

then I can show her after.

Yeah, because it’s your choice.

It’s not mine.

No, it's my choice.

Like, that means, I can do it on my own.

Yes, then I can,

after I say ‘mum, I'm done’

Then she can have a look.

But ultimately, I think we all voted very differently that day, didn't we, Harry?

And that was okay, wasn't it?

Yeah, that’s fine.

It feels so good, you know.

I can

finally vote.

It's really important that everyone's involved in the electoral process.

Harry's voice is just as important as mine

or anyone else in the community.

So it's really important for our children to vote.

The VEC has some great resources that assisted me in supporting Harry,

which was a really good resource

as it had a lot of visuals, very little writing.

That gave Harry an overview

of what local council does and that whole election process.

I realise that as carers, we might think

that it's quite a daunting task

in that we're the ones having to support them,

in their knowledge and throughout the process.

But it's an important life skill that they need to learn.

When Harry was younger in his primary school years, and it's something

that's not quite on your radar as a carer, but I hadn't actually come across

any information about eligibility for voting for people with disability.

So, once I realised that he certainly was eligible to vote,

it was certainly something that I thought -

it’s something well, primarily he has a right to do

- and it's really important that he's involved in that process.

As carers, we’re

trying to gain his independence and skill set in

so many facets of his life, and learning to vote is no different.

So I knew that, with the right support and preparation,

it will be certainly something that he would be able to do.

Don't forget to vote, at home or at the centre.

I think with Harry, it was really important

that he knew he was supported, and that

he didn't have to do it alone.

And quite often, there may be some anxiety that comes along with this process.

And knowing that you could have somebody there with you,

assisting you to do that, was really quite,

valuable thing, wasn't it?

Yeah.

Yes, spot on.

She's amazing.

She always melts my heart.

I want to say the biggest thank you to her.

Without her,

I’m going to actually cry.

But I get to have, I mean,

my mum who cares

about me.

I love her so much.

Thanks Harry.

Of course.

So, I'm Julieanne and I'm Abbey’s mum.

Hi, I am Abbey

and I'm 17 years old, and I'm her child.

[laughs]

Well, Abbey was diagnosed

with autism when she was 3 and a half,

So, since then, I guess, was

when we were sort of thrown into the big wide world of therapy.

And where do you go, and what do you do, and how do I best support my child?

It's quite confronting at first and very overwhelming.

But yeah, since Abbey was young.

Well, I have

thought about it before, but I'm a little worried how it's going to work.

I'm not sure what to do.

Unsure how to fill the papers in

and unsure the right person to

choose is right for me.

Again, this is just new to us,

but for us to be going through this process is probably more keeping up

Abbey informed to understand. So, we'd probably be using lots of visuals

with repeated conversation and explaining things to Abbey.

So that would probably be more around the actual voting process, the venues

that you could vote at, what they look like, looking at

what the forms actually look like, how you fill in the forms.

And then, I guess, coming into election time, it would be going through

all the candidates’ information, reviewing that, answering any questions

Abbey might have, or she might want to reach out to them

and ask them some questions.

And yeah, just to help her make an informed decision

that resonates with her beliefs and her values.

I haven't thought about that before,

but is it fair to judge someone who is different, just like me?

We can vote, but we just need extra help to understand.

It's something that we've just really started to think about

as Abbey's coming into voting age, but, absolutely.

I believe Abbey has the ability and the right to vote.

Abbey is quite strong willed in her thinking,

and already has formed some opinions about political matters

that she's seen on social media platforms or on the news.

So for us, it's more about preparing and understanding

the voting process.

[laughs]

I am really happy Abbey's excited.

And she's like, I said before, she's been showing some interest already.

So, I think it's really great that she wants to be part of this process,

and to be included and have a say that represents her and her choices.

You know, turning up on the day, voting, having her say.

And what,

what's important to her?

She's representing herself and what’s important to her.

Because you do, you have some strong opinions.

You certainly do.

[laughs]

It would be proud.

It would be proud for her to be able to vote.

Yeah.

Aren’t you excited?

Well, yes

because I want to vote what's right for me.