Young people in the ACT are the most politically engaged in Australia, but they also have the highest levels of dissatisfaction with the political system.
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That is one of the findings from a report prepared by the 2019 Australian youth representative to the United Nations, Kareem El-Ansary, to be released on Wednesday.
Mr El-Ansary said young people in the ACT were the most negative when asked if they felt represented by politicians and the political system, but were also the most likely to follow the news and be able to name their local MP and electorate.
"So there's perhaps an argument to be made that the more informed you are, perhaps the more you realise there are a lot of gaps and shortcomings," Mr El-Ansary said.
"And, I think, what it sort of reflects more broadly is young people in the ACT, and across the country, are trying to engage in a political system that isn't engaging with them at all."
Mr El-Ansary said the three biggest concerns for young people nationally were education, climate change and mental health.
"Those issues emerged everywhere, it wasn't specific to urban areas, it wasn't specific to a particular cohort. Young people were concerned about these things everywhere," he said.
Young people in the ACT had the second highest level of concern about climate change after Tasmania.
Mr El-Ansary, 24, travelled across Australia between February and August last year, engaging face-to-face with about 10,000 young people aged between 12 and 25, 43 per cent of whom lived outside capital cities. He also spent two months at the United Nations in New York.
Concern for the future of work was also consistently raised by young people in the ACT, which was unique to the jurisdiction.
"In those consultations, a lot of young people felt that their education wasn't adequately preparing them for the jobs market and a rapidly changing world of work," Mr El-Ansary said.
It's a pretty simple message: listen to young people. Actively go out of your way to engage with them. You will be so surprised by what they have to say and how good their ideas are
- Outgoing Australian UN youth representative Kareem El-Ansary
Mr El-Ansary said 7 per cent of Australian young people felt represented politically, which had declined since 2018.
"The key here is, I think, that a lot of young people don't feel represented, don't feel heard, but they are ready, and they are willing, to participate," he said.
"Not only political leaders, but our communities and our society more generally need to do a better job of involving young people and actively including them in decisions, but also treating them with the respect that they deserve."
Mr El-Ansary said young people should keep participating, even when they felt they were getting nothing back.
"I would encourage [young people] to keep finding ways to solve problems in their communities. They are. That was something I was pretty blown away by. You go out into a lot of these regional communities and, yeah, they're facing a lot of challenges, but they're coming up with some really interesting solutions and unique solutions. And a lot of them are quite successful," he said.
The majority of young people involved in consultations were aged between 12 and 15, while 43 per cent were aged 16 to 19.
Twenty- to 25-year-olds made up 6.6 per cent of consulted people, while 10 per cent of all those consulted identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
Mr El-Ansary encouraged political leaders to do more to engage their younger constituents.
"It's a pretty simple message: listen to young people. Actively go out of your way to engage with them. You will be so surprised by what they have to say and how good their ideas are," he said.
Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
