Youth activists dent political apathy

Written before the recent Federal Election ... but of enduring relevance ...!

Young people are often said to be apathetic about politics because they feel remote from decision-makers.

However, there is evidence to suggest that the young often feel strongly about political issues but at unsure as to what can be done.

A recent national survey conducted by state and federal governments found that nearly 90 per cent of the sample wanted to participate in decisions affecting their lives, but that only 13 per cent believed governments were responsive to the views of young people.

Roberta Ryan, a co-author of the Youth and Citizenship study said focus group interviews confirmed a disconnection between young people and politics.

"Young people think very poorly about politicians, and see capital P politics very negatively."

This sense of youth political disconnection seems particularly strong in regional areas such as Tasmania.

However, some young people in Tasmania are bucking the trend and are directing passion and commitment towards political activism.

Lucy Watt, 22 works full time as an Electorate Officer at the Hobart Office of Duncan Kerr, Federal Labor member for Denison.

Her job involves helping to get postal votes in and making sure people are enrolled to vote.

"At Uni I was never politically motivated at all," Ms Watt said.

"I guess I felt like there wasn't really much point. I was always on the Labor, kind of Green side anyway and the job I got at Duncan Kerr's office was through uni anyway because I did a placement there for Journalism, so it was kind of a bit of an accidental thing and then I got a job out of it," she said.

"The issues that are mainly important to me would be the war in Iraq, the refugees. I don't like what the Government's doing with... refugees, people in detention that kind of thing. I don't think Labor's much better but they're slightly better. I think the problem with politics these days is just that Labor and Liberal are so close together on the spectrum that you don't have much choice between the two," said Ms Watt.

"I think the actual platform behind the Labor party I agree with a lot more but it doesn't seem like they're really sticking to that that much, it just seems like a variation on the Government," she said.

"I'd always voted and stuff. I thought it was important to vote but, ... I'd never been a part of young Labor. I wasn't part of Student Council," said Ms Watt.

"My uncle was a union kind of man, he works for the Education Union, and my cousin (his son) was head of the Tasmanian University Union for a couple of years," she said.

My family's kind of got a history of Labor party, kind of Union involvement. I guess that's probably where it came from," Ms Watt reflected.

"I think people are generally really apathetic. I think it kind of came home when I was at Uni when people were voting for the election.... no-one votes basically," she said.

"I thought it was important to vote, I never didn't vote if I could. I do think that people...care about the issues but they think that voting or doing something like that's probably not going to change it," Ms Watt noted.

" I think they don't feel like they either should bother or it's not going to make a difference what they say, but, I don't know, I'm hoping that it's getting better. I don't know if it is or not," she said.

Ms Watt expressed concern about divisions within the Labor party: 'it's incredibly factionalised and people hate other people within their own party and I just find that really frustrating... we should all be going for the same things. I think for me its also Duncan as a person I find I like what he stands for a lot more than the actual party because he's kind of the left of the left," she said.

Ms Watt admitted to having mixed feelings about Mark Latham "I've met him a couple of times. I haven't really warmed to him that much. I think some of his polices are good but I think to be honest we probably won't win because he's just a bit more of a gamble than John Howard and I think probably middle Australia aren't really prepared to take that kind of risk with someone who's kind of a bit younger," Ms Watt commented.

"When I was at Uni. it was more of a social thing, it wasn 't 'I want to get involved and do something,' but now I guess I've had to think about it a lot more and I think it's been really valuable. I've learnt a lot about the actual system of Government. I am quite interested in it now," she said.

Ms Watt is unsure of what difference a change in government would make.

"I'd like to think it did make a difference but I'm not particularly confident of that. I don't know if there'd be much change," she said.

Ms Watt laughs. "I'm cynical already," she jokes.

Ben Bartl, 25, helps oversee the Green party campaign for Tasmania as a Green Federal Election Committee member.

In this capacity he has helped to organise several campaigns in lead up to the Federal election including a movement to end smoking in pubs and clubs.

By organising pub crawls to smoking pubs wearing gas mask Mr Bartl helped to bring the issue to the attention of the media.

In the wake of this publicity triumph, Mr Bartl and the young Greens activists hired a double decker bus to go to newly smoke free pubs.

Another campaign was planned for national threatened species day on September 7.

"A few of us were body painted green with flowers around our head to raise awareness of a herb found in the South-East, ... in Recherche Bay which is planned for logging. The swamp eye-bright," said Mr Bartl.

"There's only ten left in the world and they're all located in this small area near Recherché bay which is planned for clear- felling so we're just trying to raise awareness of that," he said.

"What attracts me to the Greens...is I feel they're one of the only parties in Australia at the moment that are genuinely interested in social justice... that obviously includes the environment and what we're doing to the environment.," said Mr Bartl.

"I suppose I've always been a bit of a ratbag and I suppose what attracted me to the Greens was I saw them as a voice for those who have no voice," he said.

"Bob (Brown) has always been very strong and all the Greens have always been very strong on the environment... on threatened species, on conservation of species, biodiversity but they've also... been speaking out about the plight of refugees, asylum seekers, the homeless, people in public housing, free education, free public health ,these issues where people are increasingly marginalised by the major parties," said Mr.Bartl.

"My father's a disability advocate. So he's always been in contact with politicians about the plight of the disabled and how they're lives could be made better. Mum's heavily involved in progressive Catholicism, so she's interested in getting women into being priests... allowing homosexuals to be part of the church," he said.

"I think young people feel increasingly marginalised, particularly by the bigger parties. Even at a student level, the student elections, there was no-one who wanted to be President, whereas when I first started at Uni there were four or five people who consistently ran for that role. I think at the moment we do live in very conservative times. I think those people who do want to be heard are turning increasingly to the Greens to give a voice to their concerns," Mr Bartl commented.

"One of the problems has been the major parties focus on getting a job. I think there needs to be more focus at a University level on learning for learning's sake, and because (of) the increasing HECS, the increasing cost of living, the lack of money that's been given to study means that students need to work while they're studying," he said.

"There's too much pressure. There's too much stress on students to get a job," Mr Bartl argued.

"I and my friends try to give voice to what we believe in, so even though we might not get what we want, at least we're out there fighting for change," he said.

"One of the campaigns the Uni Tas. Greens have been involved with this year is getting the TUU cafes (such as Lazenby's and the Refectory) to change the coffee, or even just provide a choice whereby people can buy fair trade coffee instead of the normal multi- national crop," Mr Bartl said.

"Fair trade coffee is certified and it means that the farmer is getting a fair price for the crop that they're producing, Environmental guidelines are maintained," he said.

"The Fair Trade coffee that we're getting here in Hobart is from East Timor which is a country that Australia really needs to do more to help," Mr Bartl observed.

Jonno Duniam, 21, is an Electorate Officer who works for Liberal Senator Paul Calvert.

He describes the position as "A very varied job. I sort of do a bit of everything including...writing letters, stuffing envelopes and doing a lot of constituent based work as well. So you're dealing with community groups that come in and individuals that come in with Centrelink problems and the like," he said.

"I am working quite heavily as a young Liberal in aiding the campaign and all the young Liberals are doing as much as they can to aid the campaign as well," Mr Duniam said.

"We've been helping out in all five electorates across the state. We've been spending a fair bit of time up in Bass... that's probably the most marginally contested seat. We've been doing as much as we can to help out the candidate Michael Ferguson up there... the work we actually do entails door knocking, placard waving out on the main streets there, thinks like that, and also phone canvassing and letter dropping, all those basic sort of things," he said.

Mr Duniam has long been interested in politics: "It's an area that's always sort of interested me... I don't know that there are any particular issues per se. I do feel its very important to have your say about how things are run and what better way to do it than to sort of get involved from the inside and work upward rather than ranting and raving from the outside," Mr Duniam said.

Mr Duniam reflects on how he first became involved in politics: "It was all by chance really. I remember... someone said to me, a friend of mine who I'd known through the United Nations youth assembly said to me 'Well, why don't you join the young Libs?' and I said 'well I've been thinking about it for a while,' "he said.

"My parents...well I suppose you'd classify them as Swingers more than anything, but... my values and beliefs are probably more in line with that of the Liberal party than any other," said Mr Duniam.

"I'm a firm believer in free enterprise and reward been given to those who take the risk and try and succeed of their own back... and also my own personal religious beliefs fall in line with say those of the Liberal party as well. I'm a Presbyterian Christian," he said.

"My grandmother was a Legislative Councillor for the Labor party and my Uncle was a Minister for Police under Doug Lowe, the ex Labor Premier. My immediate family not so much, they're very quiet on that front, " said Mr Duniam.

Mr Duniam argues that there is considerable political apathy amongst young people.

"In Tasmania it's a very difficult thing to engage young people in, as opposed to the Mainland. In New South Wales alone the Liberals have something like 2000 members. Down here... we have a humble fifty Young Liberals. It is apportionate, but I think because there are so. It's easier to engage people in the issues that are easily marketed to young people, those being things like the environment, and things that involve protests... if you know what I mean, and the war on Iraq and things like that," he said.

"I would say that people are attracted to things that at least seem to immediately affect them," Mr Duniam reflected.

"I think old growth logging's a key issue. My personal opinion is that yes... we have to on one hand respect the RFA that's been established... the young liberals at the end of last year called for an end to old growth logging. That statement was made with not much calculation or research put into it but since...there are elements of the industry that need to be looked at. I think Federal policy can help in that.," he said

"Other issues that sort of concern me are probably those of immigration and things like that... there's a bit of addressing that needs to be done there. I don't know exactly how," said Mr Duniam.

"The system as is, yes it does work well in some regards, but there is a lot of unrest in the community about it, a lot of disquiet, and I think those views need to be heard and need to be addressed," he said. "I think the people of Australia need to not view things with an air of complacency, in terms of the economy especially because you have a very strong economy that's working very well... and if people become complacent, and think well its on autopilot now that's a very important issue, especially for those that want to buy a house," said Mr Duniam.

Mr Duniam confesses to being a little disillusioned with some aspects of politics: "especially with Internal party politics. I must say... as I've become more involved...I've become more disillusioned with the way I thought it was as opposed to the way it actually is. I don't know if that's the way it is across the board, but I find that that's the one thing. I mean dealing with constitutents day to day is not as much of a hassle as dealing with the riff-raff in amongst the party," he said.

Nevertheless, Mr Duniam encourages young people to become active in politics.

"I think youth politics is one of the best kept secrets in the arena because... I myself am able to sit on the state executive of the Liberal party of Tasmania and make decisions about what direction we take. Even though some people may feel distanced its very easy to get involved," he said.

"Even though you may feel pressured to act a certain way by certain senior figures in the party, whichever party it may be, in my case the liberal party, you do have the choice and the right to speak up and represent the young liberals of the state," said Mr Duniam. "A lot of people would view youth politics as a bit of waste of time, a stupid thing to do at this time of your lives and I would agree with some people in saying that... Natasha Stott Despoja was elected as a Senator at twenty-four years of age. She's flourished and now burnt out. What more would one have to work towards in life?" he asks.

"There are other priorities... you've got to have a life and things like that but I think its very important to start making decisions and have a contribution the Government runs for your future," Mr Duniam argues.

Although there is evidently a great deal of political apathy amongst the young, clearly these young people are determined to act positively to promote their respective political causes.

JAMIE ROSEWELL is a Postgraduate Journalism student at the University of Tasmania. This article was written before the Federal Election.

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Friday, December 3, 2004

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