Who’s afraid of voting for youth?

Examining youth engagement in West Australian politics

Brayden Greig letterboxing in Baldivis, September 2021. Image: Meleva Thorn

Brayden Greig letterboxing in Baldivis, September 2021. Image: Meleva Thorn

It was the start of spring, the weather moody and the sky an overcast grey. A teenager stood on a street corner, flyers in his hand.

He wasn’t however, running errands for a casual job like most nineteen-year-olds – instead, he was running for local government.

This young man was Brayden Grieg, and he is one of many young Western Australians who are currently shaping our political future.

Local council elections in Western Australia are fast approaching and Mr Grieg, along with several other young Australians, are part of a growing demand for greater representation of youth – and youth from diverse backgrounds – in politics.

The importance of – and amount of - youth representation in politics is a global issue.

Murdoch University politics and policy lecturer Dr Tobias Ide said young people were playing an increasingly visual role in global activism.  

“Youth agency has played a large role in global debates on climate change with Greta Thunberg being perhaps the most iconic example,” Dr Ide said.

“That’s a fact where youth and even children have become rather visible and having a big agency, and I think that disturbed understandings we usually have about politics, which is mostly old men and a few old women sitting in the conference rooms of hotels…negotiating and making politics.

“And now we see these young…[people] going to the street and using their agencies in different ways and trying to make an impact and raise an agenda.”

The United Nations reported in 2013 that 15 to 25-year-olds made up a fifth of global population. In 2020, young people were the biggest demographic in the world, accounting for 33 per cent of the global population.

Yet the opportunity for young people to be engaged in their nation’s political processes is often limited.

Globally, just 1.65 per cent of people in parliament, including members and parliamentarians, are aged in their twenties, and 11.87 per cent are in their thirties.

In one-third of countries, citizens have to be aged 25 or over to be eligible for national parliament. Globally, 53 years old, and 50 for women, was the average age of in 2015 .

Even the constitution of ‘the land of the free’, the United States of America, requires senators to be 30 years of age as a minimum.

“That doesn’t say that youth haven’t been active in politics for quite a while” Professor Ide said.

Dr Ide comments on youth engagement in politics over the past few decades.

Dr Ide comments on youth engagement in politics over the past few decades.

Young women protesting for the right to vote, at the feet of Parliament House. Long haired hippies marching against the Vietnam war. Schoolchildren on the streets, striking for climate action.

Youth engagement with politics is not new, and continues to grow as both decades and centuries pass by.

Former Western Australian premier Peter Dowding is a prime example of this.

While serving in government for many years in his later career, in his youth Mr Dowding walked a difficult path, often in opposition to the government of the day.

He was a defence lawyer for more than 100 conscientious objectors during the Vietnam war. It was a role he said was not always easy, and was even “intimidating”.

“In that period of time, the Vietnam war, as a student and as a lawyer, there were many demonstrations against the Vietnam war and they gave rise to a fair bit of police brutality over time,” Mr Dowding said.

“And the demonstrations got larger and larger, and by the late 1960s were all over Australia.

“They were big here in Perth too…it was a very active time…and a lot of young people were actively, actively, involved in it.”

Mr Dowding discusses his experiences of youth activism during the Vietnam War.

Mr Dowding discusses his experiences of youth activism during the Vietnam War.

Mr Dowding said anyone could make a difference.

“The world is only as good as you make it, and the reality is that everyone in a country, however repressive it might be, has an opportunity to make a difference,” Mr Dowding said.

“In some places it means dying to make a difference, in other places it means trying to influence other people to your point of view.

“I don’t think people are too young at all, I think it’s highly desirable.”

Yet currently in Australian political representation, it seems not everyone agrees.

To be a politician in Australia, candidates must be at least 18, but the average Australian member of Parliament, according to 2013 Parliament house statistics, is 51 years old.

There is, however, evidence of growing youth engagement.

In the 2017 local elections, the amount of Perth councilors aged less than 30 jumped by 70 per cent.

Federal member for Perth Patrick Gorman was the youngest member of the House of Representatives when he was elected at the age of 33 in 2018.

“Politics is dominated by people later in life and young voices rarely come to the front,” Mr Gorman said.

The Honourable Mr Patrick Gorman discusses a comment on his youth in Parliament.

The Honourable Mr Patrick Gorman discusses a comment on his youth in Parliament.

Despite the reluctance of young people to enter politics, Mr Gorman said the youth wings of Labor were “dynamic and quite vibrant”.

“[They] inject a lot of life into [a] political party, and is often where people first kind of have engagement in politics,” Mr Gorman said.

Mr Gorman encouraged young people to “put themselves forward” if “they have something to offer”.

The Honourable Mr Patrick Gorman explains how young people can becoming engaged in politics.

The Honourable Mr Patrick Gorman explains how young people can becoming engaged in politics.

And there are most certainly young people putting themselves forward.  

Nineteen-year-old Brayden Greig is currently running for the Baldivis Ward.

People have not always been accepting of his age, but this has not defined his election campaign.

“I’ve gotten a couple of comments saying [I’m] either 14 or got really good genetics, so I’m taking that as a compliment,” Mr Greig said.

“But I do understand why some people may be over one edge, especially because of my age, but it’s kind of misplaced.”

He said people were generally friendly and supportive, despite not necessarily intending to vote for him.

Mr Greig expected to finish letterboxing all of Baldivis by the end of September. Photo: Meleva Thorn

Mr Greig expected to finish letterboxing all of Baldivis by the end of September. Photo: Meleva Thorn

When I went on the campaign trail with Mr Greig, he’d already been door-knocking and letterboxing for thirty days, one and a half hours a day, six days a week. In total he had walked over 100 km, at that point in time.

Mr Greig had already been door-knocking and letterboxing for thirty days, one and a half hours a day, six days a week. In total he had walked over 100 km. Photo: Meleva Thorn

Mr Greig had already been door-knocking and letterboxing for thirty days, one and a half hours a day, six days a week. In total he had walked over 100 km. Photo: Meleva Thorn

Also running for local council this year – but for the City of Swan instead - is nineteen-year-old Haeden Miles.

Mr Miles said it was vital to have diverse representation among young people.

“Being young isn’t what is important, it is being young and being a part of those different groups that are within that demographic,” Mr Miles said.

“Because young people are often grouped up into this demographic based on our age but…we have such a diversity of perspectives, we’re not just young people who were assigned male at birth, or straight, or white.

“I think it’s important that we do acknowledge that the systems in place are not very accessible for young people as a whole to access, but they are also very inaccessible for people who are not the…majority accepted person.”

There have been comments about Mr Miles’s experience – or potential lack of it – however not to the extent he expected it.

Ultimately, he said he believed young people were not simply “the leaders of tomorrow”, but rather that they were “the leaders of today.”

Amy Astill is yet another teenager running for local government. The nineteen-year-old is contending for a seat on the Kalgoorlie-Boulder council.

Ms Astill was the youth mayor of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and the youth premier in the YMCA 2021 Youth Parliament.

“I think that politics has great potential to create real and viable changes for communities with a single position, and that’s kind of why I’m drawn towards it,” Ms Astill said.

“I want to be able to make a really great impact in the lives of other people.”

But she said she had received backlash based both on her age and her gender.

“Growing up in the regions I don’t think I’ve really had too many female role models at all or role models that come from diverse backgrounds until quite recently,” she said.

“I usually say that there are three platforms that make me who I am, and that’s that I’m a young, regional, female.”  

“It’s actually those things that make me who I am which are also the factors that people used in there against me sometimes.

“I’ve been told I’m too young, or too female, or too regional to really achieve anything worthwhile.”

Her advice to young Australians is to the point.

“Be ruthless and make sure that your voice gets heard.”