{"id":40566,"date":"2019-03-09T23:15:14","date_gmt":"2019-03-09T12:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=40566"},"modified":"2022-05-02T12:27:02","modified_gmt":"2022-05-02T02:27:02","slug":"geny-could-change-the-ausvotes-game-this-may-charlicaruso-smashingavocado-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/geny-could-change-the-ausvotes-game-this-may-charlicaruso-smashingavocado-comments\/","title":{"rendered":"Gen Y could change the #ausvotes game this May: @CharliCaruso #SmashingAvocado comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few months out from the 2019 Australian federal election the flurry of graphs, predictions and <\/span>opinion pieces<\/span><\/a> about \u201csafe seats\u201d and \u201cseats in danger\u201d have begun to fill my Twitter feed. These predictions \u2014 numbers that often dictate target electorates for a procession of campaign buses \u2014 is largely based on the data of past voting behaviour.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which is interesting.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting to me to think that the \u2018old guard\u2019 are under the assumption that Gen Y, now in our thirties (and if we haven\u2019t already, are thinking about starting a family) will follow past voting behaviour. Because it\u2019s just about now that Australian Millennials are starting to pay attention to the decisions being made on our behalf. Funnier still, few of us even <\/span>remember<\/span><\/i> who we voted for at the last election, let alone have any loyalty to them!<\/span><\/p>\n

Like the majority of Australians, Millennials are feeling the pinch from the <\/span>deliberate \u201cdesign feature\u201d the government<\/span><\/a> has been using to keep wages low (despite the cost of living continuing to rise)<\/em>. However, unlike other generations before us, we\u2019re only now getting our feet into<\/span> the housing market<\/span><\/a>, because many of us are still repaying the debt we racked up at university (coincidentally charged by the same institutions who lectured the very politicians who made us pay for our degrees, despite the fact they were taught for free). #Cheers<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re a generation who won\u2019t be impressed by stale white men kissing our babies (because when was your last booster inoculation?)<\/em> or staged political debates on TV (<\/span>tbh<\/span><\/i> our Netflix \u201cto watch\u201d list is far too long<\/span><\/i>). We don\u2019t passively consume Murdoch headlines like our parents once did. If we want news, we want it before it reaches TV, and receive it often via a hashtag.<\/span><\/p>\n

And even if we did catch a headline or two from the old-school media channels covering the  traditional political campaigns, little substance of value is likely to penetrate our well-honed bullshit detectors, a result of the constant barrage of marketing messages since birth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our generation is comfortable with rapid change, that\u2019s all we\u2019ve ever known. Which is why the notion that we\u2019d be loyal to \u201ca party\u201d election after election is laughable. It\u2019s like expecting loyalty to our employers – the reality is we\u2019ll stay put providing the conditions suit us, but we\u2019re not going to stick around and suffer when they don\u2019t. We understand loyalty from employers or politicians was only ever a one-way street, which is why we\u2019re in no hurry to return it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Game-changer<\/h5>\n

Being Gen Y myself, I\u2019m young enough to remember being annoyed at having to constantly unravel the living room telephone cord, the length of which was directly proportional to the effort our parents had to exert to keep abreast of our social lives. <\/span><\/p>\n

Our first TV didn\u2019t have a remote, and weighed the same as our car*. I remember submitting school assignments on floppy disks in high school, but upgrading to USBs by university. When I got my drivers licence I used the road map stored in my glove box, which meant I needed to study the journey before I left, because often it ran over three or so pages.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet my children have unending entertainment options. They have Netflix, YouTube and devices galore**. They\u2019ll never need to read or own a road map, because they have Siri and Google Maps. And as Millennials, we\u2019ve seen this all go down. Rapid, transformative change is all we know.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which is what makes the 2019 election so interesting. <\/span><\/p>\n

We have the ingredients of a game-changing result, with a generation so content with change, so averse to bullshit, now the largest voting demographic in Australia;<\/span> and, thanks to the 2017 marriage equality survey, <\/span>roughly 90,000 new voters<\/span><\/a> enrolled to vote then, with about the same expected to enrol for 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

Political evolution<\/h5>\n

It gets better, not only are Millennials the largest voting cohort, they’re also the generation to yield the most influence over the SECOND largest voting demographic: our parents, the Baby Boomers. Dun dun dun<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

This week Crikey<\/em> published a hotly debated piece on <\/span>What is keeping Millennials out of politics in Australia<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/span><\/i>and many readers \u2014 including Mark E Smith \u2014 contributed their thoughts on the matter.<\/span><\/p>\n

“People like AOC <\/span>[USA\u2019s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]<\/span><\/a> are precisely what\u2019s needed. The smell of revolution brewing is one of the few things that will generate actual change and not just focus groups and campaign promises. There\u2019s quite a bit of worried hand wringing in the conservative business press lately. The ruling classes tend to know their history and they can see the tide changing.[<\/span>source<\/span><\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After a year in parliament, <\/span>Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John spoke with Chris Woods<\/span><\/a> about his major concern for young people was whether Australia \u201cwill have a democracy to participate in within the next couple of decades\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the extent of political corruption, cash for access, hundreds of millions of dollars of corporate money that flows through our system and by certain industries like the banking sector, for instance, the ability to really write their own legislation\u2026 that is a massive intergenerational challenge… It means that the corporate power of sectors like the mining industry, like the gambling industry, tobacco, is put against the needs of young people in a way that so often negatively affects us,\u201d Steele-John said. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Woods also interviewed<\/span><\/a> 30-year-old Greens Councillor Jonathan Sri, who stated that, \u201cyoung people are right to be really cynical of electoral politics but that doesn\u2019t mean we should turn our back on it altogether\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we take our eye off this game, that\u2019s when they screw us the most.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is no doubt in my mind that 2019 has the potential to be the start of a political evolution that none of the old guard can see coming. The ingredients are all there! <\/span><\/p>\n

However, the challenge will be how we turn the oven on and activate the interest for Gen Y to rise to the occasion.<\/span><\/p>\n

It won\u2019t be easy. Getting and holding our attention will be the hardest part.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the opportunity is there for authentic voices to speak up, to speak loud and to win our Millennial hearts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Watch this space.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

* Exaggeration<\/p>\n

**actually <\/span>my<\/span><\/i> kids don\u2019t – I am a grinch mum who restricts tech, TV weekends only and they only have an iPod.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few months out from the 2019 Australian federal election the flurry of graphs, predictions and opinion pieces about \u201csafe seats\u201d and \u201cseats in danger\u201d have begun to fill my Twitter feed. These predictions \u2014 numbers that often dictate target electorates for a procession of campaign buses \u2014 is largely based on the data of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":40567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3434,2969,3387,3341,3342,3548,66,585],"tags":[3343,2926,3345,1850,538,3344],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/NoFibsGenY.png?fit=800%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3t0mw-ayi","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40566"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57308,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40566\/revisions\/57308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}