Centre for Youth Policy

by young people, for young people.

We want to see Liberal values passed down to the next generation.

Changing demographics means winning Gen Z and Millennial votes is critical to keeping alive Sir Robert Menzies’ vision of Australia. While liberal values and beliefs are just as relevant today as they were 70 years ago, the awareness of what we believe has declined amongst younger generations. 

In 2011, those born before 1964 made up 53 per cent of the voting-age population; now they are just 38 per cent. Conversely, Millennials and Gen Z now account for 36 per cent of voters, up from just 17.9 per cent in 2011.  The next federal election will be the first time Millenials and Gen Z outnumber the Baby Boomers.

The adage that people get more conservative as they get older seems to be breaking down. When Millennials began voting, 36% supported the coalition, now it’s just 25%. Just one in four people under 40 voted for the Liberal Party in the Federal election. Following the 2022 federal election, of the 45 electorates with the highest proportion of voters aged 18 to 29 the Coalition held just 5 of those seats.

Recommendation 11 of the Hume/Loughnane review into the outcome of the 2022 federal election specifically recommended greater engagement with young voters to ‘involve them in centre right policy thinking through discussions and debate with academics and policy experts’ - something the Centre for Youth Policy is perfectly placed to achieve.

Educating and recruiting young people to Menzies’ vision for Australia is not an abstract intellectual exercise - it is critical to prevent entrenched, wall-to-wall Labor Governments.

Our priorities:

• Establishing a Youth Action Group comprised of young leaders from each state. The group meets monthly to discuss policy ideas and is often joined by a prominent guest

• Conducting polling on young people to understand the concerns of young people and how we can use Liberal values to address them

• Developing policy on priority issues for young Australians

• Building a media presence of young people willing to advocate for liberalism

Our team:

The Centre for Youth Policy is being led by Freya Leach. Freya was the Liberal candidate for Balmain during the NSW Election. She is studying a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Laws at the University of Sydney and has a background in macroeconomics, having worked in equities research at UBS. Freya also has an active social media following and frequently appears as a guest speaker at events focussing on young people and politics.

Latest Research

Opinion and Analysis

Events

launching the Centre for youth policy with John anderson ac

Read a summary of remarks at the launch event here