Young voters don’t want a bar of us: the lament of Young Liberals leader

Thursday’s Resolve Political Monitor revealed what many Liberals have been dreading – most young people just don’t want a bar of us. Now, just 21 per cent of voters aged 18 to 34 would vote for the Coalition, down from 27 per cent at the May federal election.

Unconvinced and unwilling to listen, Australia’s young voters are walking away from the Coalition. Coupled with the fact that Millennials and Gen Z are making up a larger proportion of the voter roll, it is clear this trend presents a structural barrier to future electoral success for the Liberal Party.

As a young Australian who cares deeply about the future of our country, I believe that Liberal values provide the best pathway for a brighter future. To achieve that, we need to win elections.

So, how do we win back young voters? Before we answer that, we must first ask: “How did we get here?”

Former prime minister Scott Morrison.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

A good place to start is the 2022 federal election, in which the Coalition didn’t just ignore young Australians; it treated them with contempt.

Young Australians are highly discerning about their choices. Products and brands that are personal, transparent and ethical attract a loyal customer base. We are the generation of the influencer and we listen to those we trust.

All of this points to the importance of authenticity, honesty and integrity to young people as they make their choices. However, in 2022 the Liberal Party abandoned authenticity by serving up “Scotty from marketing”. The satirical website The Betoota Advocate coined that moniker for Scott Morrison, but the meme stuck because it perfectly summed up his attitude to the issues of the day.

Instead of the genuine commitment needed to confront the deep-seated cultural problems in our politics – on questions of respect, integrity and the treatment of women – we got marketing and spin. If the salesman wasn’t enough to turn young voters away, his approach to key policy issues – namely climate change and housing affordability – sent them running.

Action on climate change continues to rank among the top priorities for young Australians. We want to ensure that our planet is liveable for us and our children. Despite the Coalition government wheeling out a commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050, few believed it on the issue of climate action.

Why? Because the Coalition spent the previous 10 years unable to agree on an approach, and the final product was nothing more than a glossy brochure. It is not that we, the Liberals, were “Labor-lite” but that we lacked credibility. We were punished for this, and it was a key reason many young voters abandoned the Coalition.

Unfortunately, it appears this lesson still hasn’t been learnt by the federal Coalition with its recent opposition to the Albanese government’s climate legislation likely confirming the suspicions young voters had about our climate credentials. Climate action is not only about protecting the environment; it is about the opportunity to grow our nation’s prosperity.

Housing affordability is perhaps the greatest anxiety of my generation. We are bombarded daily by the media about the property market and at times it feels like the deck is stacked against us. It should be said, plenty of people choose to rent because of the flexibility and lifestyle that renting allows, and rental policy is a challenge the Coalition must do better on.

However, for as long as home ownership is an aspiration, we should be seeking to lower barriers to entry. Instead of making this a core message and policy offering, the Coalition sat on the Super Home Buyer Scheme (which would have allowed first home buyers to use some of their superannuation to buy a home) until the last week of the election campaign. While that was designed to avoid a negative campaign by Industry Super, it was seen as a cynical attempt to buy votes at the last minute. We gave voters no reason to believe us – so they didn’t.

Political wisdom says “you can’t fatten a pig on market day”. This applies to policy development. The shortcomings on climate and housing demonstrate the brand damage that has turned off young voters. The further decline in support since the election shows that the Coalition has not done enough to remedy it.

We cannot simply hope that as young voters get older they will vote conservative. So, how do we win young voters back? Liberalism is all about empowering the individual. To do so, we need to listen to young people at the grassroots. Our MPs, and our party officials, must do a better job in engaging. It means meeting young Australians where they are by using social media far more effectively than we have.

And we must increase female representation – not just because it is electorally smart, but because it will lead to better policies.

And we must work hard to apply our timeless values – individual freedom, equality of opportunity and reward for effort – to the challenges facing young Australians today.

We can’t simply hope the tried and tested policy playbook will work next time. Our policy offerings must be representative, authentic and credible.

The Victorian Liberals have finally got the message after their election loss, and NSW Liberals have already been responsive to these issues for some time.

The road to winning young voters back is long but it is necessary to win the future.

Dimitry Chugg-Palmer is the NSW state president and incoming federal president of the Young Liberals.

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