As voting day looms, the News sat down with five locals in their 20s to gauge their perspective on the Federal Election.
High on the list of concerns for each person was climate change, the cost of living and accountability, all agreeing on the rhetoric of not feeling heard as a young person.
Kate Anderson, 20, and Michael Stride, 22, are first-time voters.
Kate Anderson said how Australia handled the Paris Agreement would make a huge impact in how she votes.
“Obviously you can't have an economy that's not stable but it's really sad to see that it comes at the price of movements toward having renewable energy and climate change,” she said.
Michael said he worried that “everything is going up” — a concern echoed by others in the group.
“It’s only going to get worse, interest rates going up, cost of living going up, petrol — I’m worried about how I’m going to afford this stuff in 10 years’ time,” he said.
Brea Dorsett, 23, who has experienced youth homelessness, said acknowledging privilege should go into the voting process.
“We have a roof over our head and we're already worrying about our future financial concerns but there’s people already struggling to put food on the table,” she said.
“I just think that we need to vote on behalf of people that don't have our privileges.”
Having moved from Hong Kong only two years ago, 24-year-old Kimberley Chu does not yet have voting rights but is an avid volunteer in the community and keen to make change.
She said Australians often didn’t acknowledge their privilege of not only being able to vote, but to hold freedom of speech and room for debate.
If given the opportunity to vote, Kimberley said one of her main priorities would be in having a local Member of Parliament that supported multiculturalism.
Each individual said the election campaign between parties was at times a deterrent to voting.
“It feels like a slander campaign — everyone’s bullying each other, how can you take it seriously?” Brea said.
Tom Saxton, 20, is majoring in politics. He said young people did want “a greater voice in democracy” and politicians needed to be having “actual genuine conversations” with them.
“Young people are starting to say ‘enough is enough, we're going to take things into our own hands’, and they're finding solutions to the problems themselves,” Tom said.
“It's imperative that right now politicians take a really good look at our young people; I know it's corny, but they are the future.”