Over Autumn 2024, I asked young people across my local electorate of Brisbane what they thought about politics in this country.
I must have struck a nerve because I heard back from 1,000 people everywhere from Perth to Townsville.
I was inspired to do this after sitting down with Junkee earlier in the year and hearing that their own survey showed that 93% of young people didn't feel represented in politics at all!
Australian research has shown that our current crop of young people have the highest level of "tune out" and lowest levels of trust in government and politics in decades. While there's some signs that that's turning around, young people still report being disconnected from how decisions about their life get made.
A lot of us fill that void with other kinds of civic engagement. Young people remain active in volunteering (even as overall rates of volunteering plummet) and join single-issue and online advocacy campaigns in big numbers.
That's just a band-aid on the deeper problem. These are like escape valves, letting us all feel like someone's hearing our voice without any real risk to anyone in power.
But that's changing. And it's got the people in power worried.
Young people aren't getting more conservative as they age like previous generations did. And with people having to put off starting families longer, more people have more time to organise and take that power back.
The results were pretty bleak — 97% of you said you didn’t think the government was listening to young people.
It was amazing to hear from so many passionate young people about how we can change the future to be better for everyone.
The message is loud and clear: if governments don’t start listening to young people soon, they’ll suffer the consequences.
I asked what young people ranked as their top five political issues.
The top three were out way ahead of the pack with nearly half saying they want tax reform to make the rich and wealthy pay their fair share to pay for cost of living relief and making mental health care more accessible.
I think the biggest thing that's changed in the last few years has been just how much the cost of living crisis is hitting young people. Until the pandemic, tackling climate change would top the list but now it's all about how much harder it is to get by.
Palestine, gendered violence and delivering more homes getting on this list is a huge deal! They weren't issues I included on the survey so the hundreds of people who picked those had to do it manually. I wonder how high they would have been if they were in the list to begin with.
Nothing else cracked 1%. And if I was Peter Dutton, I'd be a little worried that only 2 young people even thought nuclear energy was worth thinking about.
From the people responding, it was equal shares between living with their parents, renting with housemates and renting alone or with their partner at 30% each. Only 10% of people said they'd bought a house.
I asked how the housing crisis was impacting people.
Nearly everyone who said they live with their parents said they want to move out but can't afford it.
Nearly everyone who said they live in a sharehouse said they want to live alone or with their partner.
And nearly everyone who bought their own house is worried that interest rate rises might mean they have to sell.
Sounds like things are pretty bad.
It wasn't on the list but six people said that they'd decided to delay starting a family because they couldn't afford a home that was suitable for raising kids.
I also asked what the top three ways they thought would fix the housing crisis were. Overwhelmingly the answer was rent freeze now.
If politicians only want to listen to their wealthy donors, they're going to face a landslide as young people who face a lifetime renting and no way out start to make our voice heard.
Nearly everyone I surveyed is working.
82% have a job, while 47% are studying, 18% are receiving income support payments, 2% are still at high school and 2% are in an apprenticeship or traineeship. That tells me more than half of the people studying - and maybe even nearly everyone - is also working a job.
I heard a lot about how bad working conditions are for young people. Insecure, casual work and low union membership in a lot of the industries young people work in means almost no attention is being paid to the challenges facing young people in the workplace.
From those of you who are working, these are the kind of conditions you face:
Lots of people brought up Australia's unfair "junior wages" regime that means that young people working the same job get paid way less than someone older.
Something I hear a lot on the doors and a lot in this survey was that young people are tuning out of the news. In fact, over 70% of young people actively avoid the news.
That's why I asked young people where they get their news from. I asked them to tick anything they checked at least once a week for news and politics content.
Of people who check news websites, overwhelmingly the most popular and trusted is ABC News on 53%, followed by the Guardian on 20% and Brisbane Times and Al Jazeera on 5% each. The most popular podcasts are 7am on 15%, ABC Daily on 14 and Big Small Talk on 12%. The most popular radio stations were triple j on 45%, ABC on 26% and 4ZZZ on 17%. ABC also dominated TV news with 53% watching ABC News compared to 20% watching Seven, 17% watching SBS and 16% watching Nine.
Obviously the kind of people who are going to respond to a survey from a politician are probably more interested in the news than the average person but even still one in four people said they actively avoid news, with 17% saying they only check the news when friends or family share them a specific story and 6% saying they avoid news completely
These results are a little skewed because of how much I post on Instagram, these stats are pretty close to what the most up to date research says.
From the 90s to a few years ago, younger people overwhelmingly got their news from written stories while older people got it from TV, but that's flipped with the vast majority of young people getting news from short form video like Reels and Tiktok rather than written pieces. Nearly two thirds of young people exclusively get their news from social media and especially video compared to just a quarter who mostly read news articles.
I asked people "if you could tell the Prime Minister one thing, what would you say?". 13 people just said "do better" and 17 just said "please help us".
Here's some of the most striking responses I saw.
“You haven't done what you've promised. We're disappointed in your leadership. You’re essentially ScoMo Lite.” — Kate, Milton
“Incrementalism is leaving people further and further behind. Be bold!” — Thomas, New Farm
“I work at a supermarket and every shift I have customers and coworkers tell me how stressful it is to afford food.” — Rachael, Southport
“I'm disabled but have to walk up the flights of stairs to get to my apartment because it's all I could afford.” — Rani, Windsor
“The "Australian Dream" doesn't exist any more. Young people will likely never own a home, this will roll over into issues with our generation getting older. How will we afford aged care if we have no home to sell to fund it?” — Zoe, Bardon
“Simply living should not feel like a losing game. It should not feel like a never ending cycle that has and is only getting worse. You climbed out of this shit hole yourself, please help us do the same.” — Erynn, Fortitude Valley
“Do not leave us with a ruined economy and dying planet just because you won't be around to see it. Society's disregard for the future in favour of profit and greed is selfish and has doomed us young people.” — Sarina, Kangaroo Point
“How dare you allow those in power, who are there because of the free education they received, force the next generation into a lifetime of debt for their education.” — Shania, South Brisbane
“If you continue to silence and ignore the people, then good luck with the next voice of Australia. Young people are done with playing a game rigged against us, we won't remain silent. If you can't do what you were paid to do and make sure that everyone can have a fair go, then step down, and step aside.” — Brianna, Yeronga
“The younger generations are struggling. We have to choose between cooking a healthy meal or paying our bills. We have to choose between an education or living without crushing debt. Are our voices being heard?” — Mia, Bardon
“I thought having Albo in charge would be a change for better than the Liberals, but I'm feeling just as — if not more — let down.” — Isabella, Ferny Grove
“How do you decide who to listen to? Sorry we can't donate to your party so you'll do what we want I guess. I'm tired of it. Sort it out loser.” — Gemma, Kenmore
“What is the point of a Prime Minister and a government when it takes the collective effort of a generation just to have our concerns heard? And just for them to not even address it except to get voters at the last minute. I just want real change and it's frustrating that you don't hear us.” — Matteo, Kenmore
“When you went to uni it was free, houses were affordable on an average wage and there weren't natural disasters every few months. Look at us now. You talk about giving everyone a fair go. What's fair about that?” — Rebecca, Sandgate
“I want to live in a world where I am open to explore my options without worrying one misstep will throw me way behind all my peers in life.” — Catherine, Bowen Hills
“I want a world I can bring children into without feeling guilty I’ve brought them into a burning fire.” — Bronte, Camp Hill
“Young people aren't set up for the future. I have such little savings I'm now in debt to parents so I could fix my car to go to work. I'm so scared of any medical accidents or my pet getting injured as I can't afford to cover the costs or not work. It's really stressful right now living paycheque to paycheque.” — Nikki, Clayfield
“I feel like we're turning into America. Everyone is struggling. We need help. What's worse is that this crisis is distracting everyone from climate change and environmental issues. We need to do better for our country and our planet.” — Frankie, Norman Park
“I was hopeful when Labor got into power and I didn't blame them when they inherited the inevitable interest rate increases and the poor economic outlook due to the global market but the time for inoffensive policy to avoid bad press is over.” — Michael, Gordon Park
“The votes of Australia sent the message: we trust you to do better than those we voted out. We're still waiting for that.The hungry, the homeless, the jobless, the depressed and the struggling are still waiting for that.” — Jennifer, Hamilton
“I care about other issues but it's hard when I'm constantly in anxiety over housing insecurity and feel locked out of buying a home. We need to have housing security to fight for our future.” — Ariel, Nundah
“We're on the brink of a total collapse if we don't fix the housing market.” — Georgia, West End
Everyone had something different to say to the Prime Minister. You can read the hundreds of responses here.
One of the reasons I did this survey is because of how often young people tell me they feel powerless to change politics. That change isn't going to come from above. It's only going to come from people organising and building their power. That's why I asked everyone how they think we can change politics together? Here's some of the answers that really jumped out at me.
“Stop the corporations outvoting us simply because they have money and we don't.” — Lachlan, Bardon
“I would love to see you hold a mind map meeting once a month where you could have a set topic and we could meet with you for an hour and chill to music and discuss that month's chosen topic for change. Make it more interactive like a third place god knows we need that now. Even like a social club, cute.” — Tee, Brisbane City
“The problem is that the government seems hesitant to support or direct money towards the issues that most directly effect young people. Why are we still listening to the older generations about climate change and the price of housing when the effects won't directly impact them?” — Nadia, Herston
“I think the old fashioned ways of communicating with politicians don't work any more. Young people don't have time to write letters or turn up to the BBQ you're hosting at the library. There needs to be online and accessible ways for us to make ourselves heard.” — Brendan, Moorooka
“Make us feel valued and important in political conversations. For so many years now politicians have spoken about people my age like we are stupid, frivolous and sensitive. I want to be respected and valued by my representatives.” — Lily, Paddington
“We need to see more people like us in politics.” — Jemma, Wilston
“Politicians use such patronising language when talking about student activism or issues concerning young people. There feels like there is no empathy for the situation we are in.” — Daisy, Bardon
“Many Australians are unable to listen and dismiss these issues as not important just because many younger people care about them. I don't know what the answer is but I wish there was a way to break through to these people and keep talking about issues that are important to us so it becomes less stigmatised.” — Jade, Bracken Ridge
“How can young people be expected to have the answers when no generation before us has? I know young people who throw their vote because politics is just too much to think about right now.” — Cassey, Kelvin Grove
“We need to see you fighting for us to believe that we can make change and that it's worth fighting for.” — Matteo, Kenmore
“I've been emailing MPs and making petitions for years, and all that I have gained from that is knowledge of just how much labor and liberals don't give a fuck about issues that don't effect rich people.” — Ariel, Nundah
"I'm not much of a political person because it didn't seem like anyone wanted to listen to my opinion. This gives me hope that life ahead could get easier rather than harder. I am 28 and have never been asked for my opinion in a form I have time for and that is accessible to me personally.” — Hayden, Paddington
“I think the media, big businesses and certain politicians want young people to feel powerless to change politics. I think young people are being misdirected towards social media as a way to create change. Get off social media and join your union and a political party. You're only powerless so long as you're silent and secluded.” — Ana, Red Hill
“Show young people how to get involved at their local branches as I reckon they only know about posting infographics on Instagram.” — Ruby, Red Hill
And there's so many more I couldn't fit in. You can read some of the hundreds of amazing ideas here.
So many people expressed how they feel locked out of the political system and completely ignored by the government — but it’s never too late to start organising for change. Awareness building like rallies and posting on social media is an important step but it’s only the first step.
The growth of online activism is driven by young people’s passion and it’s more active online than ever before. Those same online spaces are easy for people who make decisions to ignore! Even signing a petition is just the beginning.
The most effective way we can make change is the same way we have done it for hundreds of years—talking to strangers and taking action together. That’s what organising is.
It’s hard work but it’s what big business and the major parties are scared of. They’re more than happy for young people to burn out online and post into a void.
But when we start taking their seats, when we start demanding better conditions in our workplaces and when we start withholding our labour, that’s when they listen, and that’s how we win.
Volunteering with the Greens is a great way to get involved in organising and taking collective action. But there’s heaps of other ways you can build political power in your community.
From running community BBQs in your local park, meeting your neighbours and making a neighbourhood emergency plan, or organising your workplace to join your union, you can take action right now to change the political landscape.