“I’m not interested in politics” is a Titanic-sized iceberg.
Photo by Parker Johnson on Unsplash
If you’ve read my books or blog, you’ll be aware that politically I lean to the left. The NBR reviewer, who has reviewed two of my books, seems to believe that I’m a communist feminist. While I’m not that extreme (I’d happily wear the label socialist feminist (which is different, not that he would realise!!)) I think the current three-headed monster running our country is as backward as their policies. Whether it’s …
Tobacco prioritised over health
The divisive, disgusting treaty principles bill
Increasing speed limits at the cost of lives and injuries
Oil exploration resumption
Roads, roads and more roads
Gun regulations written by gun lobbyists
Benefit bashing
Gutting the public service
Tried and failed boot camps and gang insignia wars
I could go on and on and on and on …
Although I can’t change the past, I can influence the future. If we could interest younger people in politics enough to vote (that’s the key point), the result of our democratic process could be very different.
NB – this post focuses on age demographics. A future post will focus on ethnicity (which is as problematic!)
The facts
2023 General Election - Voter turnout by age
The statistics for the 2023 general election which voted in the current government have been released. It’s the age breakdown that I think is the smoking gun. To be fair, the age breakdown is similar (if not the same) as the 2020 general election. Though many organisations, such as ActionStation Aotearoa, campaigned hard to alter the outcome, to get younger voters to the polls – disappointingly little changed.
I realise that statistics make many people’s eyes glaze over. Many other people distrust them - lies, damn lies and statistics. I’ve boiled down my argument to the following simple table.
This tells us that …
There are more voters under 34 than over 65 in Aotearoa New Zealand
But, more people aged 65+ voted than those under 34
If voting was compulsory, the under 34s would have cast ≈ 150,000 more votes than the 65+s.
So what?
Let’s imagine that …
younger people vote more progressively (Labour, Greens, Te Pāti Māori) than conservatively (National, ACT, NZ first) by a ratio of 2:1. I can’t find the exact statistics for this but I’m currently hassling the Electoral Commission for the information)
and that every “younger” person took an active interest in politics and voted.
This is what the results would have looked like.
In such a close election, it could’ve been the difference between what we have and what we might have had.
I must add, Labour did themselves no favours in their last years in government. I can only hope that the ultimate result is a stronger progressive block for 2026. But the huge question remains …
How do we get “younger people” interested in politics?
If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them. We’ve got around 18 months to change the world!!
