From Schwartz Media. I'm Daniel James. This is seven AM. At the recent election, a generational shift became undeniable. Nearly half of all voters were millennials or gen Z and their votes helped deliver Labor its biggest lower House majority ever, returned a size of a cross bench and left the coalition reeling. But despite their decisive influence, young voters are still waiting for answers, especially on one issue they've placed at the heart of their demands, a government duty of
care in the face of the climate crisis. Today, climate activists Unduli Sharma on whether Labor were governed for the young people who delivered them victory. It's Monday, June ninth.
Well, young voters held a large amount of power in this federal election. For the first time, Gen Z and millennials outnumbered Baby boomers.
So Labor has been given a huge majority at mandate. And we've heard a lot about how that came off the back of the youth vote at the most recent election. How do you think young people viewed that election? What did they think was at stake?
Well, there was a lot at stake this election.
We saw culture's rife during the election campaign, we saw policies that just simply did not accord with what young people are seeing before our eyes. What's reality for young people?
And I'm talking about nuclear I'm talking about uninspiring policies on housing, on cost of living, really from both major parties, and so I think what young people were really looking for when we went to the ballot box was some level of safety, some level of security, and the fact that the government was delivered with such a historic majority, I think is reflective of that.
Recognizing the change in demographics at the election, both major parties chased young voters online.
Absolutely labeable white, twenty percent of everyone's student dead. By the way, it's the first bit of legislation will introduce if we're re elected on the third of May. Signing up for UNIE shouldn't mean signing up for a lifetime of debt.
What did you make of those efforts?
Yeah, it brings a smell to my face thinking about some of the social media campaigning that we saw from really all sides of politics. Peter, why should I care about Peter Dutton wanting to gut Medicare.
Well, Brian, You're a dog, so it doesn't surprise me. That you don't care you're not allowed in hospitals. But when he was last health minister, he tried to end universal healthcare by introducing gp CO payments.
We now know that the words de lulu with no sululu are in our parliamentary hand side. This really was reflective of the fact that both major parties had done their homework. They knew that it was young people who were going to be a key factor in swaying this election, and they wanted to meet us where we were. I guess you can say that they did that. They met us where we were in relation to their social media later,
in relation to how they tried to get our attention. Now, the question for them is how they honor our votes and how they take that forward, how they act on that mandate that we delivered to them.
You mentioned that during the campaign it was rife with things like culture wars, which are basically, I guess, constructed to divide the community and try and get a majority of from one particular side on any particular issue. Do you see the election out come as a rejection of that type of politics, that politics of.
Division In a way, I think that people were sick of hearing about whether our next prime minister was going to stand in front of three flags or whether they
were going to stand in front of one. But also at the same time, at the start of twenty twenty five, the Liberal Party was in a competitive position and there were polls showing that they could take majority government even and that we knew that their views on indigenous rights, their history of climate denial, and their wants to spook and push nuclear Of course, it became more visible as the election campaign took center stage in people's minds, but they were shown at the start of the year that
culture wars had gotten them support because they were there in front in the polls. So I wouldn't say it was a complete rejection of cultural wars. Unfortunately, to some extent they got ground with that, and you know that's why parties like One Nation have seats in the Parliament
as of now. But I think that vote was reflective of that desire for some sort of security, some sort of stability, and the backflipping that we saw from the Liberal Party, the up and downness of their election campaign and their ability to offend almost every marginalized group in the country was something to do with their vote.
So We've been talking about the huge influence that Gen Z millennials have had on what the new parliament looks like, delivering what he's on paper, a progressive parliament. What confidence do you have that what we'll see on paper will translate to real world action.
Well, you're asking me this question after the government has just approved the Northwest Shelf project, Woodside's carbon bomb essentially, so you've caught me a time of not very much optimism.
I'll be honest. It's really, really, really disheartening that this government's and this Environment Minister's first act is to greenlight a project, a gas project out to twenty seventy in clear contradiction of an immense amount of science, an immense amount of business groups and organizations and unions backing a call to keep all remaining fossil fuels in the grounds, and the evidence that says that we need to do that to make good on our Paris Agreement obligations to
deliver a safe and Liverpool future for young people. Woodside is a carbon bomb and there was very good reason to not let that project go ahead. But under Australia's broken environmental laws that we've seen promises full reform continually be kicked down the roads. That project was allowed to go ahead despite this mandate, despite this historic youth vote.
Now that they've won our votes, they've retreated into that shelter of complacency once again, and they're not too set on figuring out how to honor.
Them coming up after the break a duty of care to young people or to Woodside.
Now the federal government is being accused of setting off a carbon bomb after.
Giving the green light to a forty year expansion of that is biggest gas operation.
Angelie. You've point into the government's decision to green light the extension of Woodside's a massive gas project, as a major disappointment given the huge mandate labor now has. What would you want to see them do with it?
Well, one end of Australia right now is underwater and the other end is going through devastating drought. It's clearer than ever that climate change isn't a far off issue anymore for Australians. It's one that's touching hearts around the world. It's one that people are seeing not just through our TV screens but through our windows. That mandate now is a mandate. As I've said, for safety, for security. And that doesn't mean acting on woodsides wishes and on the
wishes of Meg O'Neil. It means delivering ambitious climate and environmental reform. That means Australia's broken environmental laws aren't able to be used as a smoke screen to push through extension after extension.
That mean that we're.
Not able to tick a box and say yes, we've done our part on climate change because our emissions that we burned here in Australia are this much while actually where one of the world's largest exporters of fossil fuels, and where responsible for much much more emissions than we actually count in our domestic targets.
Angelie, you were one of eight children who took the Federal Environments to the court arguing the government has a duty of care to protect young people from climate harm. Where does the push for a legally recognized gi of care stand right now?
So I guess to answer that question, I'll start with telling you why we believe that that should be legally recognized, and that's because we know that young people will be worst affected by climate change. We know that climate disaster is increasing in frequency and severity, and that it's our generations that we'll have to bear the brunt of that.
That's what we argued, as you said, before the courts in twenty twenty again in twenty twenty one on appeal, and unfortunately that ruling was overturned after being successful initially.
The Federal Court today may have accepted the minister's legal arguments over ours, but that does not change the minister's legal obligation moral obligation sorry to take action on climate change and to protect young people from the harms that it will bring.
So it no longer exists right now in common law before the courts. However, we continued that campaign after that ruling, and what we've done is we've worked with Independence and in a David pocock I move.
That the following bill be introduced, a Bill for an Act to Amend the Climate Change Act twenty twenty two, to put.
Forward a bill to the Federal Parliament that seeks to establish that duty of care.
Bill obviously would legislate a duty of care where the Environmentister, the relevant decision maker would have to consider the impact of fossil fuel projects.
On young people.
Right now, that bill is still before the Parliament and hasn't been voted on the Government has indicated that they don't support it as of.
Now, but our work continues in that area.
So what kind of support does it have in and out of Parliament?
It has lots of support in the Parliament.
We had a lobbying day where we went around to around fifty MPs and we asked them for support in writing for a duty of care. That day we got support from around thirty members of Parliament and eleven of them were from within the government, including assistant ministers too. We have support from businesses and unions. We released an open letter calling for this study of care that was signed by five former Australians.
Of the Year.
A Nobel Laureate Australia is the most decorated Olympian Emma McKeon organizations young people have written to the Parliament asking for the.
Study of care.
We have thousands of signatures on our petition. It's a principle that, as far as I've tried to communicate it to people, is very well received.
Your campaign has led to a bill being put forward by Senator David Pocock. You mentioned that Labor isn't going to support that bill. Have you spoken to anyone within the government about that bill.
Yeah, so we have quite regular, ongoing and productive conversations with many people within the Parliament. We have a really strong coalition of backbenches within the government who support this bill and to have been from the outset some of our really really strong supporters for a duty of care. Unfortunately, though, what we see is factional politics is caucus politics.
That mean that it's actually.
Not those backbenchers who get to say despite what their communities might be calling for, and it means that really really good policy proposals like this one don't just get rejected, they get rejected without any possibility of compromise or negotiation. That doesn't mean that we've stopped calling for a duty of care.
Our campaign will continue in this term of.
Parliament to and now what we're calling for the government now is that if you don't like this private members bill that's before you.
Then do it your own way.
Put in a duty of care however you would like draft in your own terms, but work with us and work with young people on actually doing that, rather than saying our current environmental.
Laws a fit for purpose. We've got X, Y and Z, because clearly they're not.
If you're approving Northwest shelf out till twenty seventy, then there's something lacking in our environmental laws. We've got this proposal here to plug that gap, but we need you to come to the table as well.
I want to fast forward to the twenty twenty eight election, will be at the tail end of a decade that signed to say is critical when it comes to climate change. We spoke about how young voters were instrumental in Albanesi's victory. What's the risk if young voters and their priorities are ignored.
Well, what we saw this election actually, as young people do, skew progressive and that doesn't just mean delivering a labor government. It means significant first preferences for Greens and for climate independence. In some of the youngest electorates in the country. We saw significant swings towards the Greens. We saw previously safe seats turned marginal because of Green's challenges or because of
climate independence challenging the sitting and incumbent MPs. It's a clear indication of what's to come in twenty twenty eight. If we believe that that mandate that we handed the government hasn't been on it and hasn't been taken forward. It's something that we know that we'll continue to see. It started in the twenty twenty two election, that green slide, that swing towards climate independence. It continued this election and it's only going to grow.
We know that one of the.
Biggest reasons that the government and parliaments haven't put forward decisive policies on young peoples because up until now they haven't really had to consider them as a key demographic and lead up to election. The more that that happens, as we saw in this election, the more we will see policies targeted towards young people.
Who've just seen.
Australia's youngest senator ever elected, and I hope that she does as she said, become a voice for those who share her perspective and those who know what it's like to be twenty one right now, staring down the barrel at a world that could be marked by climate disaster increasing in frequency and severity, and compounding with the crisis of inequality of frog, insecurity of water, insecurity of housing, insecurity.
This movement is not just.
One that we see every three years at the ballot box. It's one that we're seeing continuously through different avenues that are being used for change.
Andelie, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us.
Thanks so much for having me. I really appreciate it.
Before we go, I wanted to tell you about some of the reporting. In the latest edition of the Saturday Paper. Barrister Adrian Bow writes about the recent death of a young Aboriginal man while under the restraint of two plain
clothed police officers and Alice Springs in Bartway. He draws parallels between the death and the twenty nineteen shooting of Cumen Joe Walker and the systemic problems that these killings reveal, and award winning writer Richard Flanagan reports in the crisis within the Tasmanian Liberal Party over plans to build a stadium that would bankrupt the state. You can find these stories and many more at the Saturday Paper dot com dot au. I'm Daniel James. This is seven am. Thanks for stay