Opinion: Forget Twitter, have your say this way

YOUNG people have so much to say on social media so why won’t they speak up when it really matters?

IT’S tempting to sermonise about the disgraceful number of young Australians who haven’t enrolled to vote.

However, it would be rank hypocrisy because I did exactly the same, disqualifying myself from the 1967 referendum. Why, I can’t remember, although it possibly had much to do with the pursuit of wine, women and song. And it probably had much to do with lethargy and a huge disconnect with a political process that seemed to have contempt for youngsters.

I can’t find any figures to show if the young adults of the 1960s were any more disenchanted than those in the 21st century, but it is worth recalling that 1968 was year in which the youth revolution turned the world on its ear.

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But, it seems that at 21 I had much in common with the 18-year-olds of today, half of whom haven’t enrolled.

That’s 131,418 people who turned 18 since the last election and haven’t registered. The figures get better with age but, still, 11 per cent of those aged 21-24 still have not filled in the form. In raw figures, nearly 400,000 people aged 18-24 have failed to enrol.

That they have not registered is sad but why they haven’t registered is the intriguing question.

If public opinion polling is on target – and it generally is, despite what politicians selectively tell you – young people think they have more at stake in this election than most.

That seems a reasonable extrapolation from polling showing 61 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 were less likely to vote for the Coalition as a result of Malcolm Turnbull’s “jobs and growth” Budget.

The Guardian-Lonergan poll found little love for the Budget in all age groups but younger people were particularly disparaging, with the Budget being a real turn-off for 58 per cent of those aged 25-34.

Nearly 400,000 people aged 18-24 have failed to enrol. That they haven’t registered is sad but why they haven’t registered is the intriguing question.

Bill Shorten’s address in reply wasn’t exactly greeted with joy, with just 35 per cent saying it made them more likely to vote Labor, 41 per cent saying less likely and 24 per cent unsure.

But the poll couldn’t detect the same sort of demographic disdain – or generation gap – for Shorten’s effort.

I think the Budget does give young people a good kick in the ribs and offers them little relief from their pain but, whatever the reality, it is the perception that counts.

How much it counts can be judged by a Roy Morgan poll in April showing that Labor leads among voters aged under 50 (60-40 per cent among 18-24 year olds, much the same among 25-34 year olds, and 52.5-47.5 per cent among 35-49 years olds). There is no reason to suspect the Budget would have done anything to win this group over to the Government.

Then the trend reverses with the LNP leading 53-47 per cent among 50-60 year olds and 61-39 per cent among those aged 65 and above.

The Government has good reason to be thankful that so many of those it has offended won’t even get to cast a vote.

In the LNP’s core support group, discontent with changes to superannuation is palpable although probably exaggerated.

And it must get down on its knees and give thanks that its greying friends are generally more fastidious about their electoral duty.

But, there could be a hidden sting in the Budget, with the all-age polling showing just 29 per cent more likely to vote LNP, 47 per cent less likely and 24 per cent unsure.

In the LNP’s core support group, discontent with changes to superannuation lurks and retrospective tinkering with the cap on superannuation accounts and contributions is palpable although probably exaggerated. I can’t think of too many people with accounts above $1.6 million who would think of voting anything but LNP but it is the fear of change that hurts.

Labor’s proposals approached the problem from a different direction and with a similar result but it is the Government that is wearing the opprobrium.

However, the overflow from my mailbox suggests a real sleeper could be changes that savvy pensioners know are looming over the horizon.

Next January an estimated 300,000-plus pensioners will have their entitlements cut as a result of changes to the asset test and nearly 100,000 will lose it altogether.

Again, the test for part pensions has been extraordinarily generous but try telling that to someone whose entire retirement plan has been turned on its head.

They’re not happy.

Then, in July, the pension age will rise by six months, the first step in a journey that will take it to 67 in 2023.

Our politicians are out there in hi-viz vests, squeezing melons and spruiking their chosen wares.

But ordinary people – young and old – might well have their minds turning to other things.

Between pleasing, say, the people of Bribie Island (median age 58) and St Lucia (24), our politicians are playing to a pretty tough audience.

And neither side can expect wild applause.

The deadline to enrol or update your details is 8pm Monday 23 May 2016. Click here to enrol online

Originally published as Opinion: Forget Twitter, have your say this way