My generation is insecure and uncertain mainly because of two issues.
Insecure because owning a home and having a stake in Australia’s future feels increasingly unattainable. Uncertain because of anxiety about climate change and the policy confusion in addressing it.
Young Australians have come to share a narrative of decline that expresses itself in these two issues. There is a feeling of disempowerment and unmet aspiration.
These two issues feature prominently for young Australians because they deeply care about their world and their environment and they are motivated by having a conception of their place in that world. No issue embodies one’s sense of place and belonging more than home ownership.
Herein lies opportunity for the Liberal party to forge a new base of support.
Robert Menzies declared that the “real freedoms are to worship, to think, to speak, to choose, to be ambitious, to be independent, to be industrious, to acquire skill and to seek reward”.
This is the essence of the freedom and empowerment of the individual that the Liberal party at its best advances.
Yet, to my generation, these words fall flat. Young people will not seek to conserve a system that is not working for them.
If the Liberal party can offer hope and certainty in the form of bold housing reform and sensible climate action, it will win over a new generation of aspirational voters.
This is an opportunity to live up to Menzies’ vision of a party that empowers individuals to build, prosper, choose and freely pursue their goals.
The ability to own a home taps into deeper themes of fairness and opportunity. In so far as home ownership represents opportunity, it also supports a healthy democracy. Home ownership is also about economic security and is the foundation of a healthy middle class.
Young Australians entering the housing market face a system of byzantine planning laws and unhelpful tax barriers which either inflate prices through speculative behaviour or put the brakes on downsizing.
While discussion of immigration numbers and their effect on prices is worth having, ultimately it is a side issue.
The Liberal party needs be bold and tackle this issue at the root: supply. High density housing, done well in areas well-serviced by transport links and public utilities, is the path forward.
It may not be politically expedient in the short term. Nimbyism is a force to contend with. But it is the right thing to do to broaden out opportunity and to ensure that Australians my age have a fair go at building a future for themselves and their families.
This strategy is proven, with the Canadian Conservatives significantly improving their standing with young people off the back of pro-housing supply policies.
Climate action and reaching net zero are important goals for the sake of future generations of Australians. Here, the Liberal party needs to address the concerns of my generation in an honest, sensible and realistic way.
It would be tragic to push forward policies that purport to preserve our environment for future generations, only to saddle them with mountains of debt, sky-high energy prices and rolling blackouts.
The Liberal party should draw on the innovative spirit of Australian enterprise and champion deregulation – notably in industrial relations – to bring down the costs involved in mining critical minerals, green R&D and to open up employment opportunities to young people more broadly.
Lifting the ban on nuclear and accepting the role that gas will play in weaning us off coal are good, sensible starts. Importantly the Liberals should eschew big government approaches. The government should not be picking winners and losers. Government should leave it to capital markets to decide whether nuclear, wind, solar, hydro or hydrogen is the path forward.
The political movement that advocates for policies that broaden opportunity for young people in the housing market and that sensibly meet the demands of young people for addressing climate change is a movement that can build a new, long-term support base.
I firmly believe that it is policy rooted in the Liberal faith in empowering individuals and in private enterprise that will meet the yet unanswered hopes, dreams and aspirations of young Australians.
Chanum Torres is the president of the NSW Young Liberals
