After weeks of speculation many Australians probably breathed a collective sigh of relief when the Prime Minister ventured to Government House on Sunday to call the federal election for September 7.
While some of us have been waiting with baited breath for our chance to exercise our constitutional right to have a say on who will be our elected representative in Parliament, others remain somewhat politically disengaged.
A recent survey by the Australia Institute found 30% of people aged 17-25 are ‘not really interested’ in the upcoming federal election, with 15% completely ‘disinterested’. What’s more, 68% don’t know who their local MP is and alarmingly, 59% of those who are not enrolled to vote, don’t intend to.
These results only confirm what I have experienced having worked behind the scenes in politics, and after many a discussion with non-politically passionate friends; many of us who come under the tag of Generation Y are fairly fickle when it comes to how we cast our vote.
Sometime we are swayed by one or two policy announcements which on the surface sound appealing. Other times it can be something as simple as liking the look or personality of one politician more than we like the other one. Or we may even just make up our mind when we pick up a brochure on the way to the ballot box.
No matter how disenchanted you may be with politics, let me assure you, every vote well and truly counts. Even in seats where the sitting Member has a massive margin, or even if your candidate of choice is only likely to receive a few hundred votes, each and every ballot paper that is popped into those little boxes sends a message about what set of policies you think are best for our nation.
During the campaign politicians and political candidates of all persuasions will make policy announcements on a range of issues. At first glance, you may brush over some of these, thinking they aren’t really that relevant to your life situation, or that they don’t really matter in the scheme of things.
On the surface, this may be the case. It’s hard for people who don’t have kids to get excited about increased investment in primary school education, or for us youngsters to cheer when they raise the Age Pension. Despite the fact these decisions may have merit, their impact on us seems too remote to really sway our vote either way.
But when you think about them more deeply, you may find that some of the policies which don’t appear to affect you now, may have long-term consequences – good or bad – which will affect you in the future.
Take education policy for example. While there are some differences in how the major political parties intend to allocate the funding, both have committed to significantly increase the amount of money paid to our schools over the next few years. Many of us Generation Y-ers, who are still a few years off having school-age children, have a natural tendency to skip over such policy announcements, thinking there’s nothing really it in it for us.
While this may be true in the short-term, in the next few years many of us will have children in these schools. By increasing this investment now, education standards will lift and when that time does come, our children will be the ones who benefit.
Even if you plan on never having kids, a better-educated generation of youngsters will no doubt help propel a better economy in the future, and create a pool of taxpaying adults who will help take care of the nation’s ageing population in their post-retirement years.
So think about the policies as they are announced, and the long-term impact they may have on you now, and into the future. After all, each and every vote counts, so think about what message you want to send.
The Australian Electoral Commission estimates there are nearly 1.4 million missing voters, who are either not enrolled or haven’t updated their details. The deadline to check enrolment status and/or enrol to vote is 8pm this coming Monday. You can enrol and update your details at the AEC website.