What do Young People Want From the 2025 Federal Election? We Asked You.

Young people are asking REAL questions 👀

We’ve heard it multiple times now: in this election, Gen Z’s and Millennials outnumber Gen X and Baby Boomers.

This was pretty obvious given the number of memes posted daily on both the Labor Party and Liberal Party’s TikTok accounts.

It’d be easy to assume students want to hear about politics filtered through memes and diss tracks but could it be possible they actually want to know…more?

Spoiler alert: they do.

We asked some Student Edge members to write in what they wanted to know in terms of the 2025 Australian federal election.

Here’s what they wanted to know:

Cost-of-living and young people.

A big one that came up a majority of the time was how any government was actually going to help young people.

Rather than policy-talk, a lot of people actually wanted to know what was being done.

One member asked “what [a] government will do to help people who are young and have limited working hours to still earn a decent income to pay bills?”

Another said they wanted to know “the party which is actually more inclined to help the working-class and doesn't only advocate for it publicly.”

And another wanted to know about “policies on cost-of-living! How will either party assist in the cost-of-living crisis?”

We’re not politicians so we can’t answer their questions, but here is a video of Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton guessing how much the price of a dozen eggs cost:

It's not just about the cost-of-living though.

If you’ve ever heard anyone say young people aren’t involved in politics show them this.

Heaps of young people also wanted to know about the technical stuff. This ranged from policies around digital regulation to nuclear energy to immigration and the economy.

One member asked, “how will the policies of the major parties—especially around climate action and digital regulation—affect young people in the long term?”

Other things members wrote in and asked include:

• “why is Dutton emphasising the importance of nuclear energy and not other renewable energy such as hydro or wind?”
• “how the US tariffs are going to affect us?”
• “I want to know more about the changes that are going to happen to our economy if each party gets elected.”

Also, young people can see through the propaganda.

A big thing that came up multiple times is the way politicians “lie” during campaigning.

A lot of members wrote in to tell us that they “don’t trust politicians” or they wanted to hear about “actual policies without lying” and asked “who will keep their promises”.

Instead, they wanted politicians to be clearer about how they were going to help people, or clearer on what policies they were advocating for.

One member wanted to know “clearly what each candidate supports with no propaganda.”

And another wanted to know “their actual plan of implementation (not just bagging other parties) - tell me what YOU will do for real.”

Student Edge does not endorse claims that any politician has lied but acknowledges this reflects the opinion of some readers.

But if you’re a student who feels this way and you’re unclear of how politicians feel on certain subjects, it’s worthwhile looking at some election resources before you vote.

You can check these out here:

• They Vote For You - How does your MP vote?
• Build a Ballot: Create Your Own Preference Sheet
• ABC Vote Compass 2025 Australian Federal Election
• AEC Practise Voting Tool

And if you’re voting this Saturday, happy voting and don’t forget to snag a democracy sausage!