Life on the West Island - Taking it for granted

This week, two West Island academics – Duncan McDonnell and Sophie Ammassari of Griffith University - published a research paper which might startle believers in the value of our nation’s democratic systems. Introducing their findings, they wrote:

Young Australians will shape the upcoming federal election. For the first time, Gen Z and Millennials are the dominant voter bloc, outnumbering Baby Boomers. But over the past couple of years, we’ve heard stories from around the world about how Gen Z (people born between 1997 and 2012) are discontented with democracy. In the United States, just 62% of Gen Z voters believe living in a democracy is important, compared with nearly 90% of other generations. Globally, more than one in three young people support a strong leader who disregards parliaments and elections. This proportion is higher than among any older generation.

Our recent research suggests Gen Z Australians aren’t immune to feeling disengaged with democracy. In fact, we found high rates of political disaffection among the country’s youngest voters, and those who didn’t vote, at the last federal election.

The researchers found that 86% of Gen Z West Islanders voted in the 2022 federal election, meaning that a larger proportion than other generations either did not enrol or did not vote. They gathered a large cohort of Gen Z voters for further analysis, looking at three distinct groups: those who voted; those who enrolled but did not vote; and those who did not enrol to vote at all.

They reported that our research shows almost a third of Gen Z citizens who didn’t register to vote said they either didn’t know they had to, or they didn’t know how. This is troubling, given the efforts of the Australian Electoral Commission to get everyone on the roll.

But for those who believe that democracy is important, and that compulsory voting ensures that a very high proportion of citizens engage with the election process and cast an informed vote, the researchers’ further analysis was disappointing. McDonnell and Ammassari reported that:

Just 11% of Gen Z voters said the main reason they turned out in 2022 was because “there was a party or candidate I wanted to vote for”. Only around one in five said their primary motivation was because “I thought that voting makes a difference”. Instead, by far the most important reason for casting a vote was “I did not want to get fined”. This was the main driver for 47% of Gen Z Australians. On one hand, this seems like a great advertisement for compulsory voting with enforced penalties. Even a small fine like the $20 for not voting in a federal election is enough to get many Gen Z people to vote. On the other, if the key motivation is just to avoid a fine, it’s not a great sign of a healthy democracy.

It seems that political candidates, and especially the main West Island parties, are failing to generate enthusiasm for voting and for the merits of democracy, at least among the cohort of younger citizens.

Another group with a lack of engagement might be those who have migrated to the West Island and have gained citizenship through meeting all required criteria, including that an applicant must “be a permanent resident, have lived in Australia for at least four years (including 12 months as a permanent resident), be of good character, and pass the citizenship test, demonstrating knowledge of Australia and its values.” While we once had a Good Neighbour Council which encouraged new citizens to learn about our political system and to actively participate in it, there is no longer a consistent process for this.

Recently, respected journalist Mahir Ali recounted the tokenism of our approach to educating newly minted citizens about our society and values:

Voting in federal or state elections has invariably posed a dilemma ever since my family and I qualified as citizens almost a quarter-century ago, at a ceremony where we were handed out miniature editions of the New Testament alongside the sausage sandwiches.

But there is another side to this story, which shows that not all West Island electors take for granted the privilege of voting to elect their representatives. At the last federal election, some of us from Life on the West Island worked at a pre-poll voting booth in an area which has a very multicultural community. Voters queued from the opening of the booth right through to closing time, many of them taking their first opportunity to take part in a democratic election. Some had come to the West Island as refugees, while others had escaped from persecution and repression by authoritarian regimes. They had satisfied all the tests to become citizens and had joined the electoral rolls.

It was humbling to see their enthusiasm and joy as they lined up to receive their ballot papers. Many came in family groups of three or four generations and excitedly asked us to take mobile phone images of them putting their completed votes into the ballot boxes. Some cried with joy at the chance to actually vote for the first time, with mothers and fathers hugging their children and excitedly telling them that they, too, would be able to vote in the future. It was noticeable that these voters had also informed themselves about the electoral process and were fully familiar with our preferential voting system. These voters clearly valued the opportunity to cast a secret vote.

Those of us who complain about having to vote or say that it isn’t worth the trouble are clearly taking our democracy for granted. As events in other “democracies” show, it is all too easy for demagogues to manipulate voting systems through gross gerrymanders, punitive voter registration requirements and manipulation of requirements for minority group voters to travel vast distances to vote while ensuring too few polling places in targeted areas to ensure that would-be voters are frozen out. All of these practices are commonplace in the “leader of the free world.”

We should never take for granted the West Island’s well-managed, free and fair democratic electoral system – voting just to avoid a fine is a shirking of our social responsibilities.