Navigating politics at a young age
By Sean Courtier, St Bede's College
In May of 2022, Triple J conducted a survey of their audience members aged 18-29. In response to the statement ‘I have confidence our politicians are working in the best interests of young people’, 98% of participants answered no. Unanimously, the young people of Australia agreed that they have been forgotten about, ignored, or perhaps even intentionally disregarded, by the system that was supposed to protect them.
Two years ago, I was mostly indifferent to politics. On a good day I could maybe name the prime minister, and the two major parties, but aside from that, I was clueless. Since then, I have become quite familiar with how politics in Australia works, and this past election was the first election where I had some idea of what’s going on.
However, recently, I have come to a disturbing realization. That being, that our political system is not a friendly opportunity to exercise our democratic right, but rather, an ambiguous mess of economic jargon and vague initiatives of change. In fact, I would argue that as a young person entering their adulthood, politics is an intentionally cryptic puzzle, with no clear solution. We are faced with a confusing landscape of political ideology and are simply unequipped to deal with the responsibility that comes with being of voting age.
For a moment, let’s consider Australia as a Rubik’s cube. Australia is diverse and in turn complex, like a Rubik’s cube, and it’s 43 quintillion combinations. Think of the solved cube as the hypothetical utopia of Australia. Let’s consider the two major political parties as two people controlling the moves of the cube. Let’s call them Larry and Leister. Every day, Larry and Leister go to their friend Patrick, and ask him to decide which person gets to make the next move. Each day they make one move, and each day, they come back to Patrick. After months, the cube is still scrambled, as the men each day seemingly undo the progress made the previous day.
What Larry and Leister don’t understand is that there are as many ways to solve a Rubik’s cube as there are to scramble it, but without some level of co-operation, their endless opposition to one another will mean the cube will always be scrambled. This infinite cycle of argument and rebuttal is to me what politics looks like from the perspective of a young person, but the problems don’t end there.
Despite our political system being named a “Representative Democracy”, this representation seemingly only extends to certain areas of the population. In recent times, our society has made an admittedly pitiful effort to fairly represent people of all genders and races, but age has not been included in these efforts. Our parliament has historically been made up of primarily old and middle-aged people who are most likely also white dudes. As of the 2016 census, 52.6% of the Australian population is under the age of 40, yet the average age of the last parliament was 51, and only 15% of MPs fit this under 40 demographic. How are young people expected to be content with a political system which violates its own basic principle of representation? Even the most empathetic politician, who has the most universal understanding of contemporary social issues, will ultimately struggle in comparison to a young person to comprehend the magnitude of these issues. Because no matter how hard they may try to understand, if it is not their future which is in question, then they are simply unlikely to care.
So as a young person, I must ask, where do we go from here. Where do we go from a political system characterized not by ideology, and genuine motions for change, but rather endless and meaningless opposition. When I turn on the TV and see another political ad, void of any true substance, I’m genuinely horrified and disgusted at how blatant the lack of dignity between both parties is. And what really troubles me, what really scares me, is that I don’t know.
I’d like to act like I have the answers, I’d like to act like I can solve the Rubik’s cube that is Australia, but I can’t. However, while I can’t provide the answers, I can say that perhaps the answer lies in the fact that it took me 17 years to understand the system that surrounded me, or the fact that the people in my life avoided speaking about politics because they deemed it a “taboo” topic. We shouldn’t be surprised that people my age are coming to this crossroads with politics when we’ve been afraid to have these difficult conversations when it mattered.
With this in mind, it’s no wonder that when I ask my peers who they voted for, I get the same replies. Usually, they respond with some snarky comment about how both parties are just as bad as the other, and how they drew a phallic image on their ballot instead of voting. And to be honest, as immature as it sounds, I don’t blame them. As a young person, filled with opinions and ideals for what I want the world to look like, it’s confusing when I’m confronted with political campaigning from which I can discern no actual ideology. It’s easy to feel lost in a supposed democracy that is not only difficult to understand, but also seemingly has no relevance to a young person who’s voice inevitably feels lost among the crowd.
We are told that our vote is our voice, our opportunity to make our mark on the political scene, but from the perspective of a young person, looking at a parliament filled with people from a different world from us, I can’t help but feel like my say doesn’t matter. Regardless of whether I vote Liberal or Labour, I feel like my voice doesn’t matter when another old white dude is running the country.
At the beginning of this speech, I brought up a survey from Triple J conducted earlier this year. I think it’s easy to look at a statistic like that and assume that it is a result of our democracy not working as intended. But I disagree. I think young people have realized, that this is our political system working exactly as it is supposed to. Preying on the people who are yet to understand the world around them. And when that’s the case, I’m pretty sure we would all agree that politicians are not acting in the best interests of young people.
As it turns out, I’m still 17, and I did not vote on the 21st of May, and while initially I used to be disappointed at this fact, having taken a wider look at our political system as a whole, I’m glad that I didn’t have to face that responsibility, because to me voting seems like a trick question, a question with no right answers, a question intended to confuse.
But let’s hope that if Australia is a Rubik’s cube, that we are still able to find that ultimate solution, that we are only a few moves away from an Australia, that inspires hope in young people trying to navigate their way through politics and provides us with the things we need to understand the world around us, and the outlets to make our voices feel heard.