A majority of young people would like to see a minority government formed after the federal election tomorrow, recent polling by RedBridge Group and Accent Research suggests.

This comes amid a sense of disenchantment with formal politics among young people, according to Monash University PhD candidate Luke Dean. 

Dean, who researches youth participation in politics, says Australian politics in general hasn't paid enough attention to youth concerns.

“Over the past couple of decades, unfortunately, the two major parties and politics in general just really haven't been paying attention to young people or their issues of concern,” Dean says.

“There’s kind of a sense of ‘a curse upon both your houses’.”

According to Dean, this is the result of “systemic failures” from both Labor and Liberal parties.

“They don’t speak authentically to young people, he says.

“I couldn’t name a single kind of policy that Labor or the Liberal Party has directed towards the experience of young people and impacting their lives.”

RedBridge Group and Accent Research also found that 18 to 34 year olds were more likely to vote for the Greens or an independent (38 per cent) than either of the major parties (Labor 34 per cent, Coalition 28 per cent).

Valerie Reeves-Glezer is a law student at Monash University and president of the Monash University Greens Society.

Reeves-Glezer says that the “marginalisation” of being both Jewish and a trans-woman motivated her to become politically active.

“I’ve always had a really strong sense of justice,” she says.

“If I think something wrong has been committed against someone or myself, then I feel, in that instance, I should be there to stand up for that person.”

Reeves-Glezer says she “always had more of an affinity towards progressive politics” and joined the Labor Party in 2017.

She was active in Labor's 2022 federal election campaign, but says she began to feel “disenfranchised” after the party was elected to government.

“I kept on seeing things that made me feel annoyed,” Reeves-Glezer says.

“I felt really disappointed in how [Labor] had fossil fuel and coal and gas projects still being approved and extended in the middle of a climate crisis.”

For Reeves-Glezer, the final blow was the Government’s decision last August to remove questions related to sexuality and gender identity from the 2026 Census.

While the Government eventually backflipped on this decision, it left Reeves-Glezer questioning the values of the party she belonged to.

“I just felt like: why is the leader of my party doing this?” she says.

“It made me feel like: if push comes to shove, is this Government going to abandon my community too?"

Dean says this feeling of disillusionment is common among the young people he speaks to.

When asking his students about their thoughts on the 2025 federal budget, Dean says young people could not see any benefit to them.

“The almost universal answer is ‘there’s nothing in the budget for me, there’s never anything in the budget for me'.”

Dean also says that the major parties are failing to communicate effectively with young people and “meet them where they’re at”.

“The young people that I talk to, most of them don’t engage with traditional media,” Dean says.

“They engage through social media, they engage through TikTok or through Instagram.”

Dean says portrayals of young people being “apathetic or somehow failing their civic duties” were inaccurate.

“[It] really isn’t the case,” he said.

“Young people are taking global political issues, whether it’s wealth inequality or justice movements or climate change, and acting upon them within their own circles, localised within their own communities.”

While Dean believes no party is communicating with a younger audience “significantly well yet”, he does suggest Greens MP and housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather and West Australian independent Senator Fatima Payman are young politicians “embracing these forms of communication to engage with their constituents”.

“They’re recontextualising how they engage with constituents,” he says.

“They’re getting amongst their community members and talking about the issues they care about.”

Reeves-Glezer says she has noticed “a lot of young creators” pop up in the political arena.

“I feel like it is working because [these creators] are getting really popular.”

While she says she does not watch him anymore, Reeves-Glezer pointed to comedian and YouTuber Jordan Shanks-Markovina (or friendlyjordies) who “gets a lot of views on his YouTube channel, especially from younger people”.

“He [is] able to summarise and explain things very succinctly."

Dean says that political parties need to “adapt quicker” to respond to these new forms of engagement.

“2025 is going to be the first election where young people [Gen Z and Millennials] are a larger voting bloc than Boomers,” Dean says.

“This has been coming for the last 10 years or so: the reality is here.”

Data from the Australian Electoral Commission shows that 2025 will be the first federal election where Gen Z and Millennials will outnumber Baby Boomers on the electoral roll by about 1.9 million voters.

Dean’s message to disillusioned young people is to make your voice heard. 

“Go out and find the person that actually speaks to you and speaks to your concerns,” he says. “We have this amazing democratic system that means that we can have an impact even if you don’t feel like you can.”

Reeves-Glezer also encourages young people to engage in the political process.

“There are a lot of things I don’t know and sometimes feel really embarrassed about it,” she says. “But don’t be afraid to ask other people…They will nurture you and they’ll help you find your way.”

MOJO News contacted the Monash Liberal Club, Monash ALP (Labor) Club and Monash Labor Unity Club for comment, but each declined to be interviewed.