By YES23 supporter Jeremy Lasek

South African human rights activist Desmond Tutu famously said: “Give young people a greater voice. They are the future, and they are much wiser than we give them credit for.”

A lot has been said about the importance of the youth vote in this Saturday’s referendum but, in most of the reporting to date, they’ve been missing in action. And we all know it’s our younger voters who’ll have to live with the result for the rest of their lives.

So, how much influence does Australia’s youth vote have? Right now, 1.78 million voters are enrolled to vote under that age of 25, and 25 per cent of all Australian voters are aged under 34.

Given we last voted in a referendum in 1999, nobody under the age of 42 has ever voted in a referendum, so we’re really entering uncharted waters.

Many did vote in the plebiscite for same sex marriage six years ago, and while a plebiscite doesn’t change the constitution, that vote changed so many lives. Many credit young voters for driving that result.

What’s resonating with our youngest voters

I’ve spent the past month catching up with a group of young Illawarra voters to see what’s resonating with them as we near referendum day. Without exception, every one of them has expressed frustration at the confusing campaigning messages and the lack of effort from many older voters to get themselves informed about the key referendum issues.

Keira High student Wayne Cai has just turned 18 and he’s excited to be voting for the first time. The importance of the vote isn’t lost on him.

“I believe this referendum is one of the most historic referendums that we could be a part of and by
voting Yes, I believe I'll make my step within history,” Wayne said.

UOW students Alex Stevenson and Sam Ticknor, both aged 20, studied up on the referendum between their studies, DJing and surfing. Sam says he’ll be voting Yes in the hope of “making history”.

“They deserve to have a Voice”

For Alex, voting Yes is ‘a no brainer’. “I think it's one of the most important steps in Aboriginal representation in our country. They've been here 65,000 years. We enjoy this land. It's equally theirs as it is ours, and I think that they deserve to have a Voice in Parliament.”

With only a matter of days to polling day, young Indigenous voter Katelyn ‘Scoots’ Burnes describes the campaign to date as "scary".

“There’s a level of mistrust and fear when it comes to anything to do with the government,” the 20-year-old proud Wonnarua woman said. Katelyn called out the No campaign’s slogan of “if you don’t know, vote No.”

“I just say, if in doubt, come find out. There's plenty of information out there.

“The Voice gives us an opportunity to speak for ourselves. We've been spoken for, and about, for many years by the government and that leads to assumptions, misinformation, and a lack of understanding. I think The Voice gives us a chance to bridge that understanding and hopefully in the future close those gaps.”

“You can’t put a price on this”

Josie Smith, aged 20, is a proud Wailwan and Gamilaraay woman studying public health at UOW.

Josie refutes the claim that the referendum is a waste of money. “You can’t put a price on this conversation and what this conversation can bring to Australia and our First Nations people.”

“I would say to older Australians, to make the right choice. Don't leave this conversation dead; don't leave it unsaid. Think about your children, your grandchildren who this is going to be affecting in the future.”

Spare a thought for the many engaged teenagers in our community who are too young to vote, but from my conversations, know more about the referendum issues than many of voting age.

Finlay Cassidy studies at Shellharbour Anglican School is frustrated that he can’t participate in the referendum.

“I'm 16, which means I'm unable to vote in this referendum, however, young people still have a very important role to play in advocacy and getting this referendum to pass.”

Another 16-year-old, Ace Cert, from Thirroul, says while she can’t vote “the most important thing to me at the moment is educating myself and the people around me about the information available about the referendum.”

Samuel Stevenson, a 16-year-old tradie from Wollongong, is also strongly supporting the Yes campaign.

“YES is pretty important to me because some of my family are First Nations, and I think they should have a fair chance, like everybody else, to grow up in an equal world.”

About the writer

Jeremy Lasek has many decades of experience in media, marketing, events and PR. His career began in the Illawarra with the Lake Times, ABC Radio and WIN-TV. For eight years Jeremy was news director for WIN in Canberra and was national news director before joining the National Capital Authority as head of media and events. Jeremy was executive director of ACT Government Communications, Events, Arts, Heritage and Protocol for many years, was Chief of Staff to the ACT Chief Minister and had responsibility for the Centenary of Canberra celebrations in 2013. Before returning to Wollongong, Jeremy was CEO of the National Australia Day Council (including the Australian of the Year Awards) and head of communications for the Australian Federal Police. He’s currently volunteering on the YES23 campaign.