On Thursday, 1 May 2025, I spoke ahead of the 2025 Federal Election about young people and their priorities for the future.
You can read my full speech below or in the Parliamentary record of proceedings (Hansard).
Young people know that Labor and the Liberals are not the parties that their parents voted for. Young people are holding up their end of the bargain, but they know that the major parties and their politicians are not. Young people are doing what they were told to do: keep your head down, work hard and you will do well. But every day they feel like they are going backwards.
Skyrocketing rents and house prices are leaving young people increasingly insecure in their homes and, quite reasonably, countless young people are losing any hope that they might one day have the opportunity to own their own home. Yet at the same time they see Labor and the Liberals cutting taxes for the rich, giving billions of dollars in tax handouts to wealthy property investors. They see health care and groceries getting more expensive year on year while the billionaires, the banks, Coles, Woolworths and the gas companies continue to make record profits and so many of them pay no tax whatsoever.
Young people were born into a worsening climate crisis, a crisis that we already knew about and a crisis that is absolutely not of their making. They see every single credible source on climate change telling our leaders that they need to act with urgency, that they need to immediately put the brakes on fossil fuels, and yet Labor and the Liberals continue year on year to open up and support even more coal and gas projects.
My message to young people at this federal election is simple: this is your election; this is your turn to shape the future of our country; it is in your hands to vote for the future that you deserve. I do not know that I need to tell them because more young people than ever are voting Greens. They are voting Greens to make billionaires and gas corporations pay their fair share, to get dental and mental health into Medicare, and to cap rents and get guaranteed lease renewals so they can have a steady, secure place to live. Young people are voting for a public property developer that will build the homes they can actually afford to live in. They are voting Greens to speak out about the genocide in Palestine and two-way arms trade with Israel. They are voting Greens to wipe HECS debt and to study at uni and TAFE for free, just like our Prime Minister did. They are voting Greens for a credible plan to tackle climate change and one to do it with the urgency it demands. Young people are voting for the Greens to stop Labor and the Liberals continuing to open new coal and gas projects.
My message to everyone at this election, but especially to young people, is: do not let Dutton trash your future. Do not let Labor take you for granted. This election vote Greens and vote for a future for all of us.