From the ABC:
Australia’s youngest ever member of parliament says political parties need to get more young people elected.
Wyatt Roy was 20 when he won the Queensland electorate of Longman for the Liberal National Party in 2010.
He lost the seat at this month’s election.
Mr Roy said it is important that Australia’s diversity is reflected in Parliament, including the ages of politicians.
“Perhaps to a lesser extent, but [similar to] the way that we talk about gender or ethnicity or professional background, it is really important that we have diversity in age in the parliament,” he said.
“When the Parliament works at its best, it is representative of the Australian people, and that includes having a few younger people in there, and that might also help [Parliament] have a longer term vision.
“I think we have to do more in reaching out to people and actually saying, ‘You can do this, and we will do everything in our power to support you to do this’.”
Media player: “Space” to play, “M” to mute, “left” and “right” to seek.
Mr Roy said young people were disenfranchised from the current political system.
“I think young people are actually pretty smart, they’re pretty astute,” he said.
“I don’t think they are politically naive, I just think they feel disenfranchised from the political system.
“I think if you talked to them in a way that respects their intelligence, I think that we can reconnect … and I think Malcolm Turnbull is incredibly well-placed to capture the imagination of young Australians.”
Yes, we do need a lot more youth in the Parliament. But not inside either major party. Fairfax has a ditty that shows what that does to them:
Court action could be on the cards after “disgusting” and “unconstitutional” tactics were used to derail the annual meeting of a shadowy organisation for young Liberals.
About 100 delegates met in Hobart last week for a conference of the Australian Liberal Students’ Federation, a peak body for dozens of campus Liberal clubs from around the country.
Tim Andrews, a former ALSF president who attended the conference, described the events on his Facebook page. “Extraordinary scenes at ALSF Federal Council, where large swathes (sic) of eligible voting delegates are being unconstitutionally, physically prevented from entering the AGM by hired private security,” he wrote. “Quite unbelievable.”
Fairfax Media has since spoken with nearly a dozen sources who confirmed that account. They placed the incident in a context of fracturing relations between the moderates and the centre-right faction in NSW, where wannabe powerbrokers hone their scheming skills and federal MPs such as Alex Hawke maintain influence over the party’s youth wing using lieutenants on their staff.
Among those bouncing delegates at the door were Jack Morgan, an adviser to Mr Hawke, and Michael Sabljak, staffer to former speaker Tony Smith. Also involved were Jean-Luc Corelli, a former staffer to conservative MP Michael Sukkar, and Ananija Ananievski, who was forced to quit Kevin Andrews’ office earlier this year following allegations of branch-stacking.
Apprenticeships in political bastardy is not what we need more of. That is why Malcolm Turnbull has zero chance of capturing “the imaginations of young people” given he has privileged politics over just about every agenda favoured by the yound:
- housing affordability;
- global warming;
- same sex marriage;
- sustainable immigration;
- super and tax reform;
- public debt.
And we could go on.
No, the Parliament needs to be occupied by a dedicated Australian youth political party; a lightning rod to educate and mobilise Australia’s ravaged young. There is one that could be created. One that we at MB would have pursued long ago if we had the time.
To be effective, The Australian Youth Party would need to have liberal underpinnings and be committed to:
- markets not rent seeking;
- housing affordability via both demand and supply side reform;
- tax reform in the name of intergenerational equity;
- social progressiveness, and
- carbon mitigation policy.
Of course it could be much broader platform given the youth perspective on pretty much everything will be different to that of the aged claw that is ripping their future to shreds.
Now is the time too. The Youth Party could galvanise enormous support very quickly and it would be immensely threatening to the Greens and Labor. That is all to the good because Labor is likely to win 2019 election after the Coalition crashes with the economy over the next term. The Youth Party must be prepared to get its hands dirty and do deals to get things done and it could well be in a position to force policy change under a Labor government in three years.
It needs some startup money and a seasoned team of people that understand how movements are started. After that, membership fees and public financing for political parties would fund it.
Who will raise their hand? It’s dying to be done. And would rock the major parties to their core.
