A new tool is hoping to shake up how young Australians engage with the 2025 federal election by helping voters cut through the political noise and see which candidates match their views on key issues.
Created by climate-focused charity Project Planet, Build a Ballot is a web-based tool that walks voters through a series of questions to create a personalised voting plan.
According to co-founders Lizzie Hedding and Tegan Lerm, it’s designed with young voters in mind, setting it apart from existing tools like ABC Vote Compass by narrowing down the key areas most relevant to Australia’s young people.
The tool provides a questionnaire where users can imagine themselves as the Prime Minister, selecting how they’d tackle issues like housing, cost-of-living, education and climate change.
From there, voters receive a personalised match score — graded red, orange and green — for their local candidates and parties, based on how closely their policies reflect the user’s preferences.
“[Build A Ballot] starts by asking user a series of questions framed around things like ‘what should we do to address the housing crisis?’ and it has a list of policies that the user can select from. These are a mix of policies from major parties, minor parties, things that independent experts have put forward as policy positions. We’ve worked with a team of experts, academics and people behind the scenes to put together what these policy options should be,” Hedding told PEDESTRIAN.TV.
The tool enables users to create a personalised voting plan for the House of Representatives and Senate, based on their research. Plus, it contains links to a research hub where users can look up the candidate’s website and track record for voting on policies, if they have one.
Ultimately, the goal is to help Australians make informed voting choices, Hedding said, by combing through public evidence as well as contacting the parties and candidates to know where they stand.
“We’ve had a really good response rate from candidates, so we’re optimistic most electorates will have the parties all scored and [it will include] a whole lot of other independents as well,” she told P.TV.
Moreover, with the young voter in mind, Build a Ballot prioritises simplicity and accessibility. It requires no personal information, works directly in-browser, and users can remain anonymous unless they choose to input their email to receive their ballot plan.
It officially launches on Tuesday, April 15 — around three weeks prior to election day — once the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has published the final candidate lists.
Harnessing the youth vote
According to the AEC, a record 98.2 per cent of eligible Australians or around 18,098,797 people are enrolled to vote in the upcoming federal election.
And with Millennials and Gen Z set to make up nearly half of Australia’s electorate in 2025 — the first time the youth will outnumber boomers in every state and territory — Hedding pointed out it’s never been more important to let young Australians know they can have a seat at the table.
Unfortunately, there’s been a pretty significant divide in terms of engaging this voting bloc.
“Young people ultimately really care about issues. It’s not that these people aren’t smart. It’s not that these young people aren’t actually engaged with the issues that affect them. It’s just that, they look at the conversation that happens, the talking points and the partisan bickering that’s always being thrown around in politics, and they feel really alienated from that process,” Hedding said.
Last month, a nationwide survey of around 1,500 Gen-Z adults by Griffith University researchers also found almost half (47 per cent) who voted in 2022 cited avoiding fines as their main motivation.
But the 2025 election can shape up to be a major moment for younger voters to really take note of their political power, Hedding observed.
“I think it’s really cool that we get to basically shape our government and with the youth voting block being the size that it is, it’s a really powerful moment where we can actually start to see some real changes in the way that our government runs,” Hedding said.
“We really want this tool to be something that you can send to that friend that feels a bit confused. So if all the information that’s being shouted at them through their social media feels overwhelming, they can go to this other place, just take a deep breath, and feel like they’ve got some information to go into the voting booth.”
She’s even got a message for anyone who thinks all things policy and politics isn’t for them: if you’re hooked to reality shows like Survivor and all the drama that unfolds to get anyone voted in or out, you’re pretty much engaging with politics in your own way.
“It’s just that [politicians] are all in suits and more of them are men when it comes to Australia. But I think young people have much more capacity to engage with it. It’s the way that it’s talked about, the language that’s used is so exclusionary. There’s so much judgement,” Hedding pointed out.
In the lead-up to May 3, she’s hoping tools like Build a Ballot can help young Australians find the resources they need to make informed decisions and not necessarily feel like they should simply vote in line with their parents.
Now that’s a message I can really get behind.
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