Unsentimental Millennials and Gen Y voters not swayed by ‘good blokes’

THE old, tribal way of supporting political parties doesn’t cut it any more, writes ALI CUPPER.

Ali Cupper. Picture: Supplied

THE key issue of the campaign was the lack of respect and attention being paid to our corner of the state.

Mildura was the only electorate with a privatised public hospital and the biggest regional centre in the country without a passenger train connection to its capital city.

Manangatang residents were risking their lives on a treacherous stretch of road that could have been fixed for less than $4 million.

Ouyen had its rail sidings removed and the Government was refusing to replace them, residents in Birchip and Wycheproof received funding for safety upgrades to their main roads, only to have it unceremoniously pulled by the Government before the election.

These sorts of things just don’t happen in marginal electorates where every election is a battleground.

Previously, and certainly among our grandparents’ generation, politics was like a game of footy where you barracked for your team.

Tribal loyalty is resistant to objective evidence and there was a sense of pride and status in doing what you could for your party.

But this generation is more discerning … their thinking is more transactional — they want to know what their party is doing for them.

We presented the case for change with figures.

We let the numbers do the talking, and the results were incontrovertible: the big parties were failing us — we were getting left behind, we were being taken for granted.

Despite contributing more than $3 billion to the economy every year, rates were through the roof, living costs were sky high and essential services were low.

At the voting booths, National Party volunteers were telling voters, “Vote for Peter. He’s a good bloke”. Once upon a time, that might have been a winning argument. But Gen Y and Millennials are less sentimental.

We saw this in Birchip where a group of rural activists in their 20s and 30s agitated for change with the slogan “Southern Mallee Matters”.

They spoke directly to the “rusted on” cohort of their electorate and pointed out their nearest neighbours in Ripon were leaving them for dead in the funding stakes and that wasn’t OK.

As for the image of the National Party “good bloke” — the genuine, salt of the earth country gentleman — it was fast losing its credibility anyway.

National Party donors were busted by 4 Corners for scamming taxpayers and killing the Darling River, LGBTI Australians were compared to rams mounting each other in paddocks, the leader of the federal Nats was caught cheating on his wife with a young staffer, free access to the cancer-preventing Gardisil vaccine was opposed on the basis it would make young women promiscuous.

This is not what “good blokes” think or say in a modern regional community.

Against that backdrop, our electorate decided to elect me, a progressive, a feminist and the first female MP for Mildura and Mallee.

It was a leap of faith, but I have the skills to get the job done — I am a lawyer, social worker, political science graduate and I am well connected.

Most importantly, I am a mother and I refuse to let my son, or any Mallee child, be a second-class citizen.

Some may say a majority ALP Government won’t care about an independent MP from Mildura, but things can change quickly in politics.

When the Bracks Government lobbied independent Russell Savage with a toxic waste dump proposal and reneged on a promise for passenger rail, they inadvertently handed Government to the Coalition in 2010.

They won’t make that mistake again. They’d be very silly to take me for granted.

• Ali Cupper looks likely to be elected the member for Mildura