I was listening to Hack, on JJJ here in Sydney this evening. They were discussing a recently released report which shows that a huge proportion of young people are completely dis-engaged politically.
During an interview with an employee of the Labour Party it was mentioned that the biggest issue for young people in relation to politics was trust. Asked about this, the party flunky launched into a huge discourse about how politicians need to find more appropriate ways of communicating with youth. Completely dodged the point, and the interviewer never got back to it.
While this was happening, I did have a thought about youth and contemporary means of communication. Our kids have grown up with so much more real time information at their fingertips than we did. So much so, that when a politician serves up a shit sandwich, our kids invariably know said sandwich for what it is.
Unfortunately this lack of engagement means that our youth are far more likely to get a smaller slice of the pie than any other interest group, because they are not out there fighting for it. Or, they get no pie at all.
This is very disappointing in light of my pet subject. The 15-24 year old demographic forms 20% of our population, and suffers a similar rate of mental illness to other groups. Yet, if a teen suffers an acute psychological episode and requires hospitalisation, there is nowhere safe to put them unless they are covered by private health insurance.
What is the solution? How do we get youth fighting for their slice?
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