Two weeks into this election campaign, you'd be forgiven for thinking it's been nothing but typical: gaffes here, apologies for insensitive comments there, gotcha questions, photo opps, front page scare campaigns.
Once we have a photo of a candidate awkwardly eating a sausage sandwich, or a root vegetable, you'll be able to call "bingo".
But amidst all the campaign fodder this week, you might have missed the most important and heartwarming bit: Australia recorded its single biggest day of enrolments in history. More than half of the 700,000 new enrolments to the AEC were from 18-24 year olds.
How significant is that, exactly? Well, hallelujah, the Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers called it a "democratic miracle".
But what's also miraculous is how little mention those young, first time voters have gotten on the campaign trail so far.
At triple j Hack, our listeners tell us every day about what's most important to them when it comes to choosing their elected officials: climate change.
Young people want climate action
But don't just take it from those latte-sipping, festival-going triple j listeners: according to Vote Compass, 38 per cent of 18-29 year-olds nominated climate change as their most important issue, which was higher than anything else.
While climate change was largely absent from the first week of the campaign, it did make some headlines in the second. The focus this week saw the Coalition attack Labor's climate change policy, claiming it would send electricity prices soaring.
Whether or not that claim is true is beside the point for young people. Ask a young person about climate change and they won't talk to you about the cost of electricity or the price of lowering emissions. They'll ask you about the cost of inaction — and the price of avoiding the topic.
As one listener told us last week, even the simple act of acknowledging climate change goes a long way: "Just hearing the words 'climate change' come out of a politician's mouth is reassuring."
Long wait times for mental health care
Climate change isn't the only priority for young voters. When Hack visited regional Victoria this week, the problems with accessing timely mental health care were immediately clear.
Young people can wait months to see a psychologist, according to former Victorian Young Australian of the Year Dr Skye Kinder.
"I would probably suggest that waiting up to 12 months is not necessarily uncommon," Dr Kinder said.
This is something the major parties are, to their credit, hoping to tackle. But while the Coalition has a mental health policy that promises record spending and a focus on suicide prevention, and Labor is spruiking a policy that includes better access to bulk-billed psychiatry appointments in the regions, the issue is still noticeably absent from debates, media appearances and glossy campaign material.
Instead, this week's campaign has been dominated by a debate about transgender athletes. This discussion is not only near the bottom of the pile in terms of priorities for young voters, it's one that has already proven to cause mental distress among trans people.
Ironically, while both major parties are campaigning to improve mental health outcomes, controversies on the campaign trail appear to be causing harm.
According to QLife, the national LGBTQI+ helpline, calls from transgender contacts went up by 56 per cent in the past week. They noted an "increase of distress in the community".
As Liam, a trans person from Melbourne told Hack on day one of the election campaign, all of this was sadly predictable.
"As a trans person, elections just mean having to be braced for the media and pollies using us as political pawns. There's always extra transphobic media during these times," Liam said.
Media appearances on legacy formats
Nothing exemplified the alienation of young people in the campaign than the leaders debate on Sky News.
It wasn't the content of the debate that left young people out, exactly, but its placement: Sky News is a subscription linear broadcast television channel — a string of words that are basically Greek to young Australians under 25. It's not uncommon for young people to not own a TV, let alone have an antenna plugged in.
This isn't just about the debate. Media appearances on the campaign trail tend to favour legacy formats that young people wouldn't be caught dead engaging with: breakfast television and AM radio stations.
Sure, some politicians have a team of young staffers who attempt to be cool on TikTok, but it's hardly topping the list of priorities for Mr Morrison or Mr Albanese before May 21.
Speaking of, to air a personal gripe: Neither have yet agreed to an interview on the nation's only national youth broadcaster (leaders, if you're reading, triple j's door is open). Nor have they responded to a call by the popular social media news outlet The Daily Aus to attend a debate hosted on Instagram.
Lazy stereotypes, untapped potential
While young people are often labelled apathetic or politically disengaged, scenes from climate change rallies and the outpouring of support for mental health awareness in recent years shows just how lazy that stereotype is.
That democratic miracle — more young voters enrolled than ever before — isn't something for politicians to ignore.
While young voters might be outnumbered by Australia's ageing population, first time voters are malleable. Without decades of rusted-on party loyalty, they present a ripe opportunity for clever candidates looking for votes.
They just need to be included in the campaign rather than left waiting for the issues that matter to them most to even be mentioned.
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2022-04-23 19:00:00Z
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