The ABC’s ‘Your Say’ election initiative is in full swing. Reporter Dominic Cansdale has caught up with 18-year-old Joshua Keijsers who is voting for the first time and is planning to vote differently to his peers and community.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00What issues are most important to you, mate?
00:09I would say, you know, everyone talks about cost of living, and I would agree with that.
00:15I would also say in terms of housing, it's not the best for me.
00:21I mean, I'm living with my parents at the moment, and I couldn't afford any place in
00:28the Gold Coast.
00:30I think especially on the southern end of the Gold Coast, it's definitely been pretty
00:35conservative for a long time, definitely liberal.
00:37I've done a bit of research myself, and it seems like, yeah, definitely been quite a
00:42blue area for a long time.
00:45Most of my mates are generally actually more right-leaning, more liberal-leaning.
00:51The strongman politics, the tough guy politics, that feels like that's becoming quite popular
00:57in some of the younger guys, and I don't know if that's kind of a maturity thing or
01:02what, but it's definitely kind of taking over a lot of my friends, I can say.
01:08I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but it's definitely becoming very popular.
01:12Some of my mates are quite right-leaning, but then they say, you know, some of these
01:16Trumpian policies and ideas are just a bit too over the top and a bit too, you could
01:21almost say, going backwards.
01:26What do you think could be done to get people in your age group, social circles, more engaged,
01:33more educated about how politics works?
01:36I reckon in general, really come into the young people's circles and really actually
01:42put forward some meaningful policies that will actually really affect, in a good way,
01:51my generation, it feels like.
01:52Again, as I said before, it really feels like it's all about the baby boomer generation,
01:56it's not really, they're in control and it's, I feel like we're getting a bit left out and
02:00a bit neglected in some ways.
02:04Is there any specific areas of policy that you would like to see better representation
02:09among young people?
02:10I'd say mental health, actually, that's a big one, mental health, definitely.
02:14I feel like the government, if they really want to win the votes of some younger people,
02:18they need to invest a lot more in mental health, maybe a bit more in schools, in, you know,
02:24social groups, anything, just mental health is definitely a big one.
02:28That was really interesting, thank you for your insight.