‘Hard group to get a vibe check on’: Gen Z prove it is still anyone’s election

Millennials and Gen Zers now make up 47 per cent of the electorate, meaning rather than baby boomers holding all the cards as they have in previous polls, younger voters have incredible sway in this election.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton are scrambling, to the point where they are prepared to embrace TikTok trends.

Both politicians are desperate to connect with young people. Mr Albanese has even resorted to using slang like “delulu” in political speeches.

Meanwhile, Mr Dutton has opted to recruit a youth to speak directly to the young people, with his Gen Z son Harry joining in on campaigning and discussing issues like housing affordability.

So far, Mr Albanese has been polling well, and just 24 hours ago betting markets, which previously tipped the coalition to win the election in November, flipped.

Labor is now the favourite to hold government at $1.19, while the odds to Liberal trail behind at $4.90 according to Sportsbet.

The odds might be in favour of Mr Albanese holding power, but we’ve also seen what can happen with polling and pre-election projects.

In 2019, Scott Morrison shocked the nation and won again after two years of being out-polled by Labor, surprising everyone as a silent majority voted for him.

When news.com.au went to both Western Sydney University and the University of Technology in Sydney to ask which party young people were voting for, the most revealing thing was what they weren’t prepared to say on camera.

Quite a few young men shared they’d planned to vote Liberal, favouring Mr Dutton as prime minister, but then declined to be filmed.

While the young men seemed confident of their views, they weren’t keen to align themselves publicly.

One young man in a hoodie stopped and said he was voting Liberal and attributed the decision to his parents.

“I’m voting for Liberal. I just really like their policies around their tax. Mostly a parents thing as well, parents are very Liberal,” he said.

Even before Donald Trump was re-elected in the US, there was a rising theory that young men are becoming more conservative.

Back in February, Flinders University government lecturer Dr Intifar Chowdhury predicted that young men, particularly those between the ages of 18 and 34, would show an increased preference for Mr Dutton compared to women in this same age range.

Speaking to news.com.au, Dr Chowdhury described the phenomenon of “anti-government rhetoric” and small pockets of “online battlegrounds where younger voters are relating to authoritarian and anti-feminist messaging”, adding we are seeing a starker rift between men and women in these pockets.

The theory stacked up on university campuses, with more women sharing they’d be keen to vote for either Labor or Greens.

“I’m voting for Labor. I’m not a hugely political person and I don’t really like any of them if I’m being honest,” one woman remarked.

“Definitely the Greens,” someone else said.

“I’m not really sure but I’m leaning towards the Greens. There’s just so much information out there. I know I’m not voting Liberal, that is for sure,” one young woman shared.

There were also many young people who were less politically charged and far more on the fence, which means both Mr Albanese and Mr Dutton need to stay focused on winning over young people.

“I still can’t choose exactly. I can’t tell who is right or wrong. I’m pretty sure most of them are not. Especially me as a student, I want something that will help me in my future,” one said.

“I have no idea. I haven’t done my research. You’ve got to weigh it up,” one young guy said. Quite a few Gen Zers also declined to be interviewed, claiming they didn’t want to simply because they hadn’t made up their minds yet.

Lizzie Hedding, who is one of the founders of Build a Ballot, a resource created for first-time voters to make an informed decision, said she’s not surprised to hear young men are leaning more conservative.

The Build a Ballot tool is a project by climate change charity Project Planet Inc. It works like a quiz, allowing young people to select their policy choices and then tells them which politician best fits their preferences.

A huge part of the reason the tool was created was to highlight climate change issues, but Ms Hedding said there was also a clear gap in the market. While politicians are trying to connect with youth via memes, she wanted to reach them with facts.

Ms Hedding said she’s always found it “crazy” how little attention people pay to politics, and she wanted to create a tool for young people to understand what they’re voting for.

A recent Build a Ballot survey found one in three respondents do not feel they can easily find out the policies of candidates and parties

On top of that, one in five do not feel confident they will be able to cast a vote that aligns with their views.

Ms Hedding said she thinks it is hard to know who the bulk of Gen Z will be voting for on Saturday, especially because algorithms split young people into “different realities”, which means it could be anyone’s game.

“They’re a hard group to get a vibe check on,” she told news.com.au.

The 29-year-old said that, for every Gen Zer who is politically active, there are also plenty who are clueless.

“I went on a date with a guy once who proudly told me he was related to Barnaby Joyce, and I told a friend whose response was like, ‘Who is Barnaby Joyce’,” she recalled.

“There are people out in the wilderness who don’t know who they’re voting for.”

Ms Hedding said the whole point behind Build a Ballet was to create a tool so that young people could make informed political decisions.

“I’d rather someone who disagrees with me at least (knowing) what they’re voting for,” she said.

The former elite athlete also argued that it is hard to know who will win the Gen Z vote when she believes neither leader has succeeded in connecting with youth.

“I think the current policy offerings that this election is shaped around don’t meet the moment of what young people are struggling with right now,” she said.

“There’s a misconception you need to communicate with young people through memes and dumb it down but I think you just have to not treat them like idiots.”

Ms Hedding said politicians speak to young people like it is “too complicated”, alienating them from the conversation.

The young Aussie said she’s just proud that Build a Ballot has at least led to young people having more conversations about policy.