AusPol101: Does a Labor Government indicate a brighter future for young people?

 

 

 

 

It’s common for young people to feel disenfranchised and disengaged when talking about politics, and that’s understandable. As the dust starts to settle and we look toward the future this government lays out for us, I find myself wondering if this government will give more focus to the young people that the coalition ignored.

 

It’s easy to say that Labor played it safe this election, trying to attract swing voters from Liberal-held electorates with the promise of under-whelming and limited policy change. They have opted for an environmentally focused campaign whilst simultaneously supporting the development of 114 new coal and gas projects and a weak policy of an emissions reduction rate of 43% by 2030. This is overwhelmingly the kind of policy that affects young people; climate change is an issue that we have walked out of class, marched the streets, and screamed about over and over again. Rather than listen, politicians have chosen to twiddle their thumbs and gaslight us, whilst simultaneously turning our figureheads into laughing stocks.

 

It’s not looking too bright for the Department of Tertiary Education either. Just a few days before the election, it began to be reported that Labor had quietly considered legislation that meant over 40,000 university students who pay tuition upfront would be paying more due to the removal of the 10% fee discount. This being uncovered at the same time that students are paying their highest HECS repayment rate ever, with a jump from 0.6% last financial year to 3.9% according to the ATO. This means that past students everywhere have woken up this morning to owe the government thousands more in debt and have been set back substantially. You know if even the Liberals aren’t in support of this, especially considering the fee hikes introduced while in power, you’ve done something wrong.

 

Yet it cannot be ignored that the Labor party has, on many occasions, introduced legislation that made real progressive change. Gough Whitlam’s three years in office ushered in an era of great economic and social change. Enacting free tertiary education, abolishing the death penalty and beginning a return of indigenous land rights. The Hawke government implemented Medicare, solidifying universal healthcare across the country. Whilst the incoming government looks toward sluggish policy change, the potential is still there, and it is undeniable that the election result in itself is a progressive step.

 

The biggest factor in students securing a better future is the balance of power within parliament, something that was hoped for by many minor parties and independents. Despite Labor scraping by with a majority win of 76 seats, this election was still historic in the sense that it recorded a record number of non-major party votes. The major parties are only major because they have said so because they took in donations from large corporations to fund repetitively corny prime-time ads and filled our letterboxes with letters that will only end up back in landfills. Additionally, it had worked for a long time, but the effects of shifting away from the traditional news corporations that funded these campaigns towards social media and independent news distribution channels are starting to show.

 

With a balance of power, the major parties are forced to listen to the voter. Rather than the standard ‘these are all of our policies and unless you want the other, slightly shitter guy to win, you have to deal with them all‘, more control goes back to the little guy. Now, with The Greens being the largest minor party in the senate, they can negotiate a step down of legislature such as the aforementioned tuition hikes and instead put pressure upon other members to support bills that allow cheaper education.

 

I recently spoke with the Youth4Mon leaders who had spent the election encouraging those within the Kooyong electorate to opt away from the major parties and career politicians, instead to vote for their homegrown politician Dr. Monique Ryan. The sentiment was the same amongst the three of them, they had never really been political before this election, but knew if they didn’t step up and make a change, then they would blame themselves. One of the leaders, Josh, tells me “recently with the way Australia’s been going if I didn’t do anything, I wouldn’t be able to justify being annoyed about the way things turned out.” And it’s clear to see that the community support for Monique was built upon a strong sense of care for social issues and a general mistrust for career politicians like Josh Frydenberg. It’s a sentiment that I feel has been needed in politics for a long time.

 

So, as my time writing AusPol101 comes to an end, my closing comment must be this; being involved in politics is not to follow the politician, but to rather be passionate about the world around you. It is to care for your family business, or for the homeless person you pass in the street on your daily commute, or for the preservation of life in the Great Barrier Reef. Politics has a hand in everything you care for.

 

Find what you care about and fight for it, campaign for it, and vote for it.

 

 

To see Grace’s earlier pieces of the AusPol101 series, click HERE

 

 

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