The 2025 Elections Will Be Important To You

28 July 2013

Young people, don’t you hate it when you accidentally turn the radio on to AM? There’s the crackling, for one, but what’s really bad is that old voice crackling or even barking away (if they’re really excited) about Gough Whitlam or John Howard and his big package or how Kevin Rudd likes coming through the back door. Don’t forget the impact of all these things on the economy and if there are any setbacks to the upgrade initiative.

Who gives a fuck?

An even more pertinent question is to ask who gives a shit about the local government. Who was the last prime minister? That’s an easy question. Who was last governor of your council? That’s a difficult question.

The other week I got a letter from the member of the neighbouring council. Great. Just what I wanted to see after spending three hours today like every other day on public transport. What I want to read a letter from the council I’m not even a part…

“NEW BUS ROUTE”

I read on. This could change my life.

Almost. Basically this new bus route can cut an hour of my trips to and from university every single day. Suddenly there’s invitations to drinks I’m not an impossibility stop suddenly my Sundays can be made work free brackets five hours more per week

Someone could shove a bit of paper in front of me, on it a bunch of checkboxes matching some old guys with greying hair smiling back at me. If I didn’t have a choice, which I don’t think any of us do since voting is compulsory, then I would mark one of the little checkboxes. I wouldn’t vote for the ones who could potentially take a day on the weekend from me. That leaves that face that I would recognise from the corny NEW BUS letter I received the other week.

I’ve been a proper adult member of society for about two years now, and already some silly little thing like this matters to me.

Ten or fifteen years from now, I’m lucky enough to be in the part of the world where one would expect to be on their way to getting a mortgage, getting a second car, maybe even considering having a child. The investment into society is that much more, and the responsibility will be more than just remembering to summarise that lecture from last week.

Maybe we worked hard for something and put time into things. Maybe the system fucked us and we’re counting on government payments. Either way we have to make sure those things never go away. Your parents will be getting older, like you, but they cannot defend themselves any more. And maybe there will be children who cannot fend for themselves yet. No matter what there will be old men, old women, younger men and women too. They will put themselves into things called political parties and groups and unions and whatever names they have for themselves. All of a sudden you’ll want to keep track of them. All of a sudden all of this may matter.