ABC’s ‘Your Say’ hears new voters’ concerns ahead of the federal election

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The ABC’s ‘Your Say’ election initiative is in full swing. Reporter Dominic Cansdale has caught up with 18-year-old Joshua Keijsers who is voting for the first time and is planning to vote differently to his peers and community.

Transcript

00:00What issues are most important to you, mate?

00:09I would say, you know, everyone talks about cost of living, and I would agree with that.

00:15I would also say in terms of housing, it's not the best for me.

00:21I mean, I'm living with my parents at the moment, and I couldn't afford any place in

00:28the Gold Coast.

00:30I think especially on the southern end of the Gold Coast, it's definitely been pretty

00:35conservative for a long time, definitely liberal.

00:37I've done a bit of research myself, and it seems like, yeah, definitely been quite a

00:42blue area for a long time.

00:45Most of my mates are generally actually more right-leaning, more liberal-leaning.

00:51The strongman politics, the tough guy politics, that feels like that's becoming quite popular

00:57in some of the younger guys, and I don't know if that's kind of a maturity thing or

01:02what, but it's definitely kind of taking over a lot of my friends, I can say.

01:08I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but it's definitely becoming very popular.

01:12Some of my mates are quite right-leaning, but then they say, you know, some of these

01:16Trumpian policies and ideas are just a bit too over the top and a bit too, you could

01:21almost say, going backwards.

01:26What do you think could be done to get people in your age group, social circles, more engaged,

01:33more educated about how politics works?

01:36I reckon in general, really come into the young people's circles and really actually

01:42put forward some meaningful policies that will actually really affect, in a good way,

01:51my generation, it feels like.

01:52Again, as I said before, it really feels like it's all about the baby boomer generation,

01:56it's not really, they're in control and it's, I feel like we're getting a bit left out and

02:00a bit neglected in some ways.

02:04Is there any specific areas of policy that you would like to see better representation

02:09among young people?

02:10I'd say mental health, actually, that's a big one, mental health, definitely.

02:14I feel like the government, if they really want to win the votes of some younger people,

02:18they need to invest a lot more in mental health, maybe a bit more in schools, in, you know,

02:24social groups, anything, just mental health is definitely a big one.

02:28That was really interesting, thank you for your insight.

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