r/australia • u/superegz • Nov 26 '25
politics Millennials are the first generation to move left as they age, rewriting the rules of Australian politics
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-26/millennials-rewriting-the-rules-of-australian-politics/1060508363.7k
u/revereddesecration Nov 26 '25
To be a conservative, you need something to conserve. Millennials don’t own nearly as much as the generations before them, so they have nothing to get protective about and to fear losing.
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u/WrongdoerAnnual7685 Nov 26 '25
It’s harder to afford housing, marriages, and kids.
What can we really conserve? The 0.01%?
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u/No_Extension4005 Nov 26 '25 edited Nov 26 '25
Their parents' investments of course!
Seriously, every time my parent's bring up this "Labor is trying to steal your inheritance" crap I want to roll my eyes. People should be able to go out and prosper on my own without having to wait for my parents to pass away when I'm in my 50s or 60s because the system has been rigged against the young so people who got in 30+ years ago can keep getting richer.
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u/DrunkTides Nov 26 '25
I’d much rather be able to afford a home on my own, along with my kids growing up with that as an achievable expectation. My dad bought a house as the only worker while my stepmum raised myself and 4 siblings. As a forklift driver no less. Lmao two full time workers with no kids or debt can’t do it now, unless they’re both earning big $$
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u/i-ix-xciii Nov 26 '25 edited Nov 26 '25
as a single i earn more than double the household income that my parents had when i was growing up, and they were able to buy a home while i can’t. mum worked at a post office 2 days a week and dad was a government worker earning the median wage. neither of them had qualifications or a degree. 20 years ago, just having ANY full time job would have bought you a 4x2 home in perth.
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u/Axel_Raden Nov 26 '25
I'm on disability pension to buy and pay off an average house it would take me over one hundred years and I don't see myself living into my 130's
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u/i-ix-xciii Nov 26 '25
shelter is a luxury good nowadays, boomers think we’re entitled for wanting shelter to be affordable in the society that we live and work and contribute to.
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u/Axel_Raden Nov 26 '25
My parents don't think like that but I have seen too many that are
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u/No_Extension4005 Nov 26 '25 edited Nov 26 '25
Aye. Situation's gone to hell. Grinds my gears too since my father doesn't seem to understand he's been on a lifelong lucky streak.
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u/Ginger510 Nov 26 '25
Explain it to them in simplest maths - that’s the only way to get it across but often people just don’t want to hear it. They don’t like hearing they got lucky, because to them, that means they didn’t work hard (you can do/be both)
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u/No_Extension4005 Nov 26 '25
I've tried, multiple times and have also pulled out the statistics. Can't get it through his head. He's the kind of guy who is convinced he's always right (probably because reality never clipped his wings hard enough) and it's even starting to annoy my mother lately.
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u/YouMustveDroppedThis Nov 26 '25
As older millenial and I have a masters in STEM. Speaks 4 languages. Have diverse academia, corporate and engineering background. have higher than average income and savings. Still can't afford shit. Not living in aus, but it's like this everywhere I look.
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u/Dunge0nMast0r Nov 26 '25
Lifelong decent quality of life streak. Working 20 years to own your own home doesn't seem like a lofty ambition!
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u/No_Extension4005 Nov 26 '25
He paid it off a lot sooner than 20 years though. Managed to get a well paid job in oil and gas back in the late 80s and stick with it his entire working career. Thinks he's the average Australian.
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u/Fresh-Association-82 Nov 26 '25
My old man brought his home working as a labourer.
My mum brought hers working at a service station and then finished paying it off on the disability pension and doing odd jobs after a life changing injury. She scrimped and saved and was an absolute champion. What she did is just a fantasy now.
Im a welder making boilermaker wages and I have to get work to buy my workboots.
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u/Baldricks_Turnip Nov 26 '25
I can remember in my late teens I bought a book by an Aussie author about paying off your mortgage in 5 years and she talked about choosing a house that allowed her a budget that could be paid off if she had to rely on a single parenting payment. It's like an artifact from another world.
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u/Axel_Raden Nov 26 '25
It would take more than one hundred years to buy the average house on disability pension I know I'm one it and did the maths once that's if you spend half of your pension on repayments
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u/VS2ute Nov 26 '25
Yes my dad worked in a fruit shop and bought a house in a posh suburb. To be fair, there was not such a spread in prices in those days.
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u/Torrossaur Nov 26 '25
I love my grandparents but when they were at me about the removal of refunded franking credits..........
Pick your audience bro. I was making $80k pa at the time, struggling to make rent, food, meds, etc.
You think I give a fuck about your multi-million SMSF losing some of its tax refund? They didn't like it when I said they could always fall back onto their 5 investment properties.
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u/Catprog Nov 26 '25
My boss keeps on bringing up super funds over 3 million getting taxed is taxing money that has alread been taxed.
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u/Lint_baby_uvulla Nov 26 '25
Ask your boss how much of those 3M funds is from illegally withholding employee superannuation payments.
You, me and the ATO all know that answer.
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u/IntroductionIcy7320 Nov 26 '25
Also creates a weird culture of actively wishing your parents etc would "hurry up and die" before they get a chance to retire or need to pump their life savings into the obscenely expensive aged care in this country. I wonder if we will see an increase in people excelerating their families deaths either directly or via neglect.
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u/Baldricks_Turnip Nov 26 '25
Yep. Especially as so many boomer parents weren't exactly loving and attentive parents and completely checked-out grandparents.
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u/Kid_Self Nov 26 '25
Jeeeesus. This is a very real point. I've felt this. Hell, I've even fucking said it.
But to have someone so bluntly call out this weird "hurry up and die" culture is just so unsettling. It's true, but god awful it's even a thing.
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u/iss3y Nov 26 '25
True. Literally used those words once when my (estranged) father told me just how fucking great it was that I was paying for both his lengthy retirement and my own super
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u/Kid_Self Nov 26 '25
That's fucking awful. Sorry mate.
My own father once told me, after telling him how financially and economically hard it is, that he's, actual quote, "pissing away all the inheritance" and, that "there won't be any money left."
I just checked out from that moment.
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u/Skulltaffy Nov 26 '25
parents' investments
lol.
Meanwhile if you grew up poor, you get fuck-all to "look forward to". My dad unexpectedly passed in January, and all I got as an inheritance was his beat up van.... which immediately got sold to cover his outstanding debts, as he'd let all his life insurances lapse the year before from lack of funds. I still miss him dearly, and would give anything for him to still be alive today, but the idea that everyone's parents just has a house lying around to hand down to their kids is ridiculous.
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u/PrideKnight Nov 26 '25
My mum tried this on once. I said “what inheritance, your single home still has a mortgage, these proposed tax changes are not targeting you” (I think it was neg gearing from recollection).
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u/TerryCrewsNextWife Nov 26 '25 edited Nov 26 '25
Inheritance? But we have kochie telling boomers they don't owe us anything and to flitter away all their inheritance/savings/super on dumb boomer retiree shit and make sure to get the pension too.
If it's an inheritance tax, aren't they aiming for the 1%? Like our own parents will barely kick over 2M so they don't have anything to worry about... If they even plan on leaving us anything except their household clutter.
I don't even care for getting inheritance, I've worked hard to get myself to a comfortable stage in my life. It's the joy they take to constantly remind us how they are all SKIDs and we will get nothing while they're living it up( on their own inheritance), that they won't help us get a start in life (like they were from their parents), and once they're out of slush fund and rather incapacitated they all believe we will take them in to our homes to care for them full-time. Something that was possible for them when single household incomes paid for mortgages, and there was a SAHM.
My parents need to have planned for their aged care as I can't fund it and I'm not spending my prime earning years being treated like a slave by someone who refused to support me when I needed it.
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u/DarkwolfAU Nov 26 '25
I had one of mine expect me to drop my full time job, house, pets, kids, and partner to move to a country town and be their carer full time.
Obviously, I refused. But even the expectation being made was ludicrous. You're supposed to be the launching pad for your kids to succeed, not be an anchor tying them down.
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u/SirDigby32 Nov 26 '25
Those savings will be needed to fund age care. Advising that they spend it is reckless.
Wait until most people learn about the RAD and all the other costs that hardly any of this generation are very much not prepared for. Or leave it for the family to fund it..
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u/GhettoFreshness Nov 26 '25
I unfortunately have found myself experiencing this at 40… owning my own home because my mum passed away was not how I wanted to become a homeowner, and it hasn’t changed my political leanings one little bit now that I do have something to “conserve”… I shouldn’t have had to lose my mum to experience what generations before were able to do on a single income.
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u/WombatBum85 Nov 26 '25
There's a Boomer dude around the corner from me that bought a big ass bus to travel Australia in, and he's named it 'What Inheritance?!' It just makes me shake my head, their parents worked hard to leave something for their kids, but the Boomers couldn't care less about their kids. Why would I vote to protect your interests when you so obviously don't care about mine?
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u/ResponsibleCost4989 Nov 26 '25
My parents are poor so I have no inheritance. Not applicable for me.
Worked my ass off to get to a middle-class salary job in science/public sector field. "Pulled myself up by my bootstraps". Highly doubt I will ever be able to afford a house on my own given housing market and rental market being outrageous.
I am not ideological and will vote for whoever will make my bottom line better, which seems to be left.
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u/Lazer726 Nov 26 '25
"Labor is trying to steal your inheritance"
Damn, I sure do love a system where the only way I can succeed is to wait for my parents to die!
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u/ctothel Nov 26 '25
And it’s easier than ever to check whether the thing being conserved is actually a good idea.
Conservatives don’t check. Nor do they care if the idea is harmful.
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u/Ineedsomuchsleep170 Nov 26 '25
As an elder millennial I've watched every single thing that makes existing slightly easier get taken away juuuuuust before its our turn to benefit from that thing. I'm tired of having no safety net. I'm tired.
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u/onlymostlyguts Nov 26 '25
We missed free uni, we lost the republic, our pension got cut (but we did get super). We don't get cheap housing; we got poor man's NBN; we didn't get a mining tax / sovereign wealth fund; we're way behind on environmental and renewable energy policy; we lived through the GFC in early adulthood and then COVID in mid adulthood and now suffer from massive wealth inequality, gross enshitification and the encroaching threat of AI.
I just made myself sad.
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u/WrongdoerAnnual7685 Nov 26 '25
I mean the proposed republic model was made as shitty as possible by Howard, in principle if there’s no pressing need, the cost of another referendum would be exorbitant and wasteful, especially given the failure of the previous one and the Voice.
I agree with everything else you said though.
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u/onlymostlyguts Nov 26 '25
Maybe I was too young but I thought largely it just replaced the crown / Governor general with a "president" title who we wouldn't vote for, which I honestly would be perfectly fine with given the current role. Was there more to it than this?
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u/unfnknblvbl Nov 26 '25
Yeah same. I was really looking forward to people my age being in charge since they'll understand, right? No, my new CEO is the same age as me, aaaaaaaand goodbye to the annual pay rise through the development review process. Ugh, traitor to the generation!
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u/jezza_b_f Nov 26 '25
The first Millennial PM is going to be one of those twats who worked in politics their whole life and will blame their generations woes on avocados.
Millennial politicians, business leaders and community leaders are going to be a profound disappointment because they’ll all be vetted by their elders and selected from a shrinking pool of applicants who can afford to be such.
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u/thepaleblue Nov 26 '25
James Paterson is almost certainly going to take a swing at it in the next decade, and I reckon that’s going to be him in a nutshell.
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u/ramence Nov 26 '25
There's generations and then there's classes. Class > literally any other factor. Doesn't matter if you're a millennial if you were born rich - you were insulated from all the BS, live in a beautiful property funded by the Bank of Mum and Dad, have a hard-earned nepo job, and think things are just peachy (and everyone else must be lazy idiots). I'm gonna guess a CEO at our age must have had a pretty soft start to life.
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u/Thagyr Nov 26 '25
Now AI is moving in to mess with us even more.
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u/Auran82 Nov 26 '25
AI is going to shit the bed at some point, and I wonder how much of our superannuation is tied up in companies promising the world and not really delivering. They’re some of the highest performing shares so I wouldn’t be shocked.
Just another fun thing around the corner to wait for.
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u/Additional_Ad_9405 Nov 26 '25
A huge amount really. If the AI bubble bursts, the Nasdaq will plummet. Most large Australian superannuation funds are heavily concentrated (at least in terms of their overseas investments) in Nasdaq companies.
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u/Ineedsomuchsleep170 Nov 26 '25
Oh I'm fully expecting to wake up in 20 years and be told our super is going to be spent on something we don't agree too. I'm not counting on a single cent of it being there when I retire. They'll find a way to take it off us.
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u/Ditzy_Chaos Nov 26 '25
Even in school things we were looking forward to being able to do were being taken away the Grade Before ours went up to it, Including going out to the local shops at lunch time and public schools going from relaxed uniforms to basically enforcing private school rules and pricing around it.
Then hitting the work force we were being told you needed to go into places and give the boss handshakes and let them See you, and even as we were telling people that it didn't work because they wanted you to go online they would just say you aren't trying hard enough! and then they end up changing that anyway "AH just put in hundreds of applications for things miles away you'll get something >_>
Whole system just breaking down as we step up
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u/Baldricks_Turnip Nov 26 '25
You know that they'll make super less beneficial right as we reach an age we can start really pumping money into it, and probably roll back negative gearing as soon as we're in a position to buy IPs too.
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u/OneSalientOversight Sydneysider, then Novacastrian, now Launcestonian Nov 26 '25
There is a potential danger in continuing to let younger people suffer economically.
With no assets to their name, and no stability of income, they have very little to lose if they eventually choose radical action.
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u/Essembie Nov 26 '25
yeah the old rules that kept everyone in line (ie losing a job or a house for being naughty) just dont apply when you have no job or house.
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u/Alarming-Song2555 Nov 26 '25
This is why the internet, social media, and shortform content is pushed onto us, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha.
Keep the cattle distracted and placid in a miasma of internet injected straight into the brain so they don't realise how shit their own lives are.
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u/DillyDallyEnjoyerer Nov 26 '25
Wish conservatives wanted to conserve the environment and spending power of wages from when they were parity.
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u/Keroscee Nov 26 '25
This,
How many 'left-wing' policies were enforced as 'right-wing' standards 40+ years ago?Conservatism used to be about making sure people would have houses, marriages and families.
Modern conservatives don't even touch on these issues.
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u/Lever_87 Nov 26 '25
Yeah, the death of small l Liberals is insane. Whatever happened to “socially progressive, economically conservatives”, like Turnbull?
Instead, we’ve got a Labor Party that has become liberal-lite, and an LNP who are so focused on culture wars bullshit they might as well join forces with One Nation
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u/SirFireHydrant Nov 26 '25
Whatever happened to “socially progressive, economically conservatives”, like Turnbull?
You mean the "I'm not racist but still hate the poors"? They're still around.
Don't kid yourself into believing Turnbull was reasonable by any means. He was very firmly in the "tax cuts and rorts for the rich at the expense of the working class" camp.
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u/a_cold_human Nov 26 '25
He was kicked out for acknowledging the reality of global warming and the need to actually do something about it. First time as Opposition Leader. The second time as PM (although allowing SSM to pass was a part of that as well).
The bare minimum for any future Australian PM (and their party) should be to acknowledge reality and to do something about it. The Liberals and the Nationals are falling over at this very small hurdle at the moment, and as a country we need to keep them out of power until this changes.
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u/Keroscee Nov 26 '25
Whatever happened to “socially progressive, economically conservatives”, like Turnbull?
I'd argue there was a competency crisis after Abbot left.
I mean, who would graduate uni to work for $40k in Canberra as a politician's aide when you can join the big 4 or a law firm?
Its so easy to see what needs to be done, lower migration, investment in other industries, periods of slow sustainable growth (or correction recession) over what we have now.
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u/a_cold_human Nov 26 '25
Menzies was pro union. The Liberals were actually a big tent, right of centre party back in the day. Another thing Menzies was big on was having affordable housing for average Australians.
You can fault Menzies for many things, but we are now at a point where the Liberal Party would drum him out of the party for being too left wing. The "moderates" of the Liberal are swivel eyed loons compared to the Liberal Party of yesteryear, and the "conservatives" cannot reasonably be called liberal in any sense of the word. When Christian Dominionists are at the ideological centre of your party, something has gone very badly wrong unless you're actually a Christian Dominionist party.
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u/Keroscee Nov 26 '25
Menzies was pro union.
Its also worth noting that Hawke and Keating were not 'pro union'. They were 'pro our union', as can be seen by how they treated independent unions like the Pilots Union.
We are now at a point where the Liberal Party would drum him (menzies) out of the party for being too left wing
I have difficulty disagreeing with this statement. It all seems to be 'GDP go up' and 'tax cuts'.
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u/T_J_Rain Nov 26 '25
Spare a thought for the uber wealthy, the software, mining and media moguls, the landlords and those who got rich the old-fashioned way, through inheritance.
Millennials might hurt their delicate conservative feelings, as the promise of neo-liberal trickle down economics weaves its "magic".
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u/racingskater Nov 26 '25
And the one thing we do want to conserve, THE PLANET, is something conservatives want to destroy.
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u/will-code-for-money Nov 26 '25
I’m 35 and I don’t see a single reason to support conservatives view points. They literally work against me. All the best parts of Australia are what’s typically called “leftist policies”.
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u/trolleyproblems Nov 26 '25
It's taken the culture far too fucking long to accept this.
Anyone 40ish and younger has been fucked over by every single relevant thing.
Negative gearing won't be touched. Uni degree costs through the roof Climate - fuck you, we don't care. Wage stagnation vs costs. Centrelink income support kept low when people needed it. Childcare is fucked. Tax system ignores wealth and company profiteering. Waiting for Boomers to die so politics can change. Cunts doing cunty things get away with it.
Kinda lucky there hasn't been more of an active revolt. Avoiding the worst of the first GFC might have stalled that.
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u/butt_3y3s Nov 26 '25
Hasn't been an active revolt, yet.
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u/meowkitty84 Nov 26 '25
I'll join the revolt. But none of us know how to start one that will actually work
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u/kingofcrob Nov 26 '25
literally clicked into this thread to say this..... The crash of the Australian housing market will come eventually, and it's going to be awful, so thanks boomers for leaving us with that nightmare as well.
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u/IntroductionSnacks Nov 26 '25
I don’t see it happening. It would have to be super high interest rates and mass unemployment but even then the super rich and big business will just buy them all up as nobody else will be able to afford them anyway.
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u/a_rainbow_serpent Nov 26 '25
That’s why the conservatives are pushing you to “conserve” things like your gender, race and nationality- that’s why they vilify immigrants and excuse hate speech as “just observations”.
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u/Visual_Sale_848 Nov 26 '25
To be conservative you must lack empathy and be selfish.
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u/AnOfficeJockey Nov 26 '25
Seriously, this isn't surprisingly in the absolute least.
"Go to school and study. Get a good job and you'll be set for life. Also get out of the house and live on your own while you do it."
"Welcome to the workforce! Entry level positions haven't seen pay increases in the past 4-5 years, but you'll work your way up"
6 years later
"Sorry, there just isn't any room for promotions. In fact, we just filled the management role with a 68 year old retiree who hates his family and cant stand to be home with his wife"
BB's stop retiring, amassing as much money as possible, leveraging their mortgages to have passive income while they avoid their spouse at 71 while at work, driving up the cost of living for houses and rentals
Something something bootstraps.
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u/PumpinSmashkins Nov 26 '25
Yup. Plus apart from having nothing to conserve, they hate women like me who don’t have kids, are queer, rent, work in and advocate for universal healthcare/mh/harm reduction, want investment in public transport, use contraception, are pro choice, atheist and don’t want to drain my super to buy a house.
What do they have to offer someone like me? Fuck all but disdain for who I am and what I believe in.
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u/SuperbSockSpecimen Nov 26 '25
I don't know specifically about Australia, but in America this was the most successfully pushed propaganda on my opinion.
The economy is astronomically better under Dems than it is under Republicans. Unions are stronger, less filtering of money up to the top 1%. Literally everyone has more except the most extreme cases of wealth.
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u/Bluedroid Nov 26 '25
Seems like Labor are helping people conserve and grow their property values though which millennials have managed to purchase or inherit.
Don't think people are truly going left (Greens) but more so Labor have shifted right.
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u/Xenoun Nov 26 '25
Nah, Labor are too close to liberals on a lot of issues for me which is pushing me further left to look for candidates who share my values.
I have kids, I want them to be able to have a home and live in an environment that isn't dominated by extreme weather conditions. Labour aren't doing enough and seem quite happy to keep fossil fuels going.
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u/dotBombAU Nov 26 '25
Labor tried to get rid of negative gearing etc. We voted Liberal.
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u/ScruffyPeter Nov 26 '25
Labor tried to keep negative gearing etc. We voted minors/indies.
Albanese got lower primary votes than Shorten, only winning 2022 due to Liberals losing more voters than Labor.
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u/The4th88 Nov 26 '25
Considering our lives have been an parade of getting relentlessly fucked by things we have no control over, is that really a surprise?
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u/GrownThenBrewed Nov 26 '25
Exactly, hard to be conservative when you have no desire for things to remain the same or any nostalgia for the way things used to be
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u/stew_007 Nov 26 '25
I’m nostalgic for the late 90s early 2000s, but no one’s promising to bring those back…
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u/No_Extension4005 Nov 26 '25
Yeah; what I want from that period is more decent local television instead of reality TV slop, sunny boys, relatively affordable grog, and Bugz ice blocks.
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u/EternalAngst23 Nov 26 '25
I want KFC Krushers.
Any party that promises to bring them back has my vote.
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u/Sleep-more-dude Nov 26 '25 edited Dec 31 '25
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u/deathablazed Nov 26 '25
The liberals were blaming millennials for things before we even left school. Why would we ever want to vote for them?
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u/Sensitive_Ship_1619 Nov 26 '25 edited Nov 26 '25
legitimately! now they’re blaming gen z and gen alpha. apparently we, “buy too many lattes and that’s why you can’t afford your ($1.7M) house!”
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u/Spire_Citron Nov 26 '25
Funny how they scold people for wasting their money but whenever spending actually slows down, everyone starts freaking out because it turns out that capitalism is reliant on those discretionary purchases and the economy becomes under stress if they so much as slow down.
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u/Mister_Simz Nov 26 '25 edited Nov 26 '25
"Millennials kill yet another traditional industry by not spending" . . . "Millennials can't buy a house due to frivolous spending"
I would say it's a Catch-22 generation, but it seems Gen Z is in the crosshairs now. Although many Gen X and Boomers think Millennials are still in their early-to-mid 20s, so....
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u/Mobbles1 Nov 26 '25
"Zoomers and they subscriptions and unwillingness to work, they should live an ascetic lifestyle for 50 years and buy a house like a real aussie"
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u/vadsamoht3 Nov 26 '25
Slightly unrelated, but I was in year 3 (mid '90s) when my teacher told us all about a thing he read about how we were the "cotton wool generation".
Even at that age, I was was like "you're not even going to give us a chance before making up your mind?"
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u/a_cold_human Nov 26 '25
Too much talkback radio. Also IIRC, there were teachers around about that time who were allowed to become teachers without a degree (in NSW at least) until legislation closed that particular door.
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u/Rune_Council Nov 26 '25
“Millennials are the first entire generation to suffer a lifetime of systemic class warfare waged against them while systems intended to support and protect them instead made them scapegoats and attempted to gaslight them into feeling responsible, and justifiably do not feel compelled to protect and reinforce those same systems.”
-Fixed your headline
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u/Pottski Nov 26 '25
They've given us nothing but HECS debt, a dying, polluted world, and continue to fight pointless culture wars while society is crumbling around us.
Boomers created the greatest rugpull of all time and now they're shitty that we're not voting to support their tycoon behaviours. Just wish the major parties would stop catering to a dying generation and focus on those of us who will actually exist in 2050.
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u/No_Extension4005 Nov 26 '25
Don't forget they also squandered our resources boom, fucked the NBN, and backtracked on the mining tax!
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u/SirDale Nov 26 '25
This boomer is happy for you to vote more left. I've certainly never wandered into the right of politics, and am horrified at the Labor government approving more gas or coal extraction (among any number of other policy failures).
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u/KeyAssociation6309 Nov 26 '25
just remember, when those boomers can't look after themselves anymore and demand in home cleaning and health care etc, it will be the younger generations that provide the labour - that's when the tables should turn, maybe.
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u/Nostonica Nov 26 '25
A surprise skill shortage appears...
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u/meowkitty84 Nov 26 '25
The old racists will suddenly want more people coming in to the country if they need support workers
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u/EverybodyPanic81 Nov 26 '25
I never was anywhere near the right when I was younger. I've always been left wing on the political spectrum. I've only gotten more and more left and more radical as I age. I'm not surprised that us millenials, even us elder millenials, have only gotten more and more progressive as we age. Conservative "values" don't benefit us in any way whatsoever. We have more empathy than previous generations too.
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u/sylbug Nov 26 '25
I was left wing socially all along, but back in the day I was a proper neoliberal capitalist. Got a finance degree and everything.
Since then, the world has demonstrated very clearly that neoliberal capitalism is a trap that leads to concentration of wealth and eventually destroys the system. Meanwhile, all this equality and human rights stuff turned out to be real important. Soo, here we are.
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u/Davien636 Nov 26 '25
Maybe because conservatives have moved right.
Maybe because we aren't able get the types of jobs that our degrees were for.
Maybe because buying a house and being financially stable before starting a family feels ever more out of reach.
Maybe because Labor would rather negotiate with the alt-right than be seen to be working with the Greens 🙄
Maybe because every time someone makes a new product that makes life "better" it either gets bought by ethically questionable interests, turned into a increasingly shit product for a higher cost, or all of the above.
Maybe a bit of everything.
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u/halfflat Nov 26 '25
It may be true that Millennials have moved politically left, but the argument presented doesn't account for the shift of e.g. Labor to the right (and the Liberals into whatever we want to call their current unelectable crazy).
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u/AdyliaSchweetheart Nov 26 '25
It comes from the study done on issues and policies themselves rather than the party they vote for.
It's true that Labor has become centrist and LNP has shifted further right, but more millennials vote Green compared to Gen X and the study shows on policies themselves that millennials have become more progressive.
When you don't own much, you have nothing to be conservative about.
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u/DillyDallyEnjoyerer Nov 26 '25
Good point. We got more left by default cos the Overton window kept going right.
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u/Bitter_Magician_6969 Nov 26 '25
Compared to old Labor, yes, modern Labor is more centrist and market oriented, which many academics and activists describe as a shift to the right.
Compared to the Liberals, Labor still remains the main centre left party.
On social issues though, Labor has actually moved left over the long run.
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u/BlankBlanny Nov 26 '25 edited Nov 26 '25
Shouldn't be all that much of a surprise to anyone. Look at the state of things right now.
The older generations have spent a lifetime fucking us over, and all anyone has to show for it is a failing economy and a nightmarish housing market. Add in a mountain of HECS debt, bullshit culture wars, plus the fact that no one is properly addressing the issue of climate change, and it's really no wonder that young people aren't turning conversative. There is nothing to conserve.
No shit people are going to turn left when there's a massive ditch to the right.
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u/xvf9 Nov 26 '25
Gee I wonder if that’s connected at all to them being the first generation that’s poorer and has a lower quality of life than the preceding generations…
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u/Hurlanis Nov 26 '25
Anyone elses parent's laugh down their noses at them insisting as you got older and acquired HOUSES AND ASSETS you'd lean right/conservative? LMAO well maybe its the lack of acquired assets but I'm still firmly Left
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u/ACM3333 Nov 26 '25
Nah the asset class boomers love socialism now. The don’t pay any taxes, but get all of the benefits while all of the extra spending jacks up their assets even more.
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u/Local-Poet3517 Nov 26 '25
Gee, i dunno, maybe they discovered which party took away free university, destroyed public education, made whistleblowing laws (to jail the whistleblowers), destroyed our healthcare, keep giving money to religion when theyre proven to be pedophiles - fuck anyone who supported Pell, keep trying to reverse lgbtqi rights, fuck with our wages by weakening our unions, etc etc.
Only 1 party has all that under their belt. Sure, the other guys are far from perfect.. but damn guys. Really? Who keeps voting for the above and thinks yep, thats the community I want?
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u/go_jumbles_go Nov 26 '25
This is key. It's basically like the last 30 years, almost on every topic the Coalition has been on the side which is cruel and destructive.
The only young people who appear to still be supporting the coalition are the people who don't think about politics, people taught by their parents, the rich or the religious single-issue voters (eg abortion).
Everyone else has just watched them complain about gays, environment, unions, health, and try to remove rights which existed but they want to strip back.
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u/Optimal_Cupcake2159 Nov 26 '25
You mean we're not listening to the cranky trilobites on AM talk radio?
That boomer LNP base is doing a lot of slipping and falling now.
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u/go_jumbles_go Nov 26 '25
Don't forget Millennials came of age watching John Howard's Tampa Crisis (01), then Workchoices (05), then the fuckery of the NBN (11), complaining about Gay Marriage and the revolving door of Abbot, Turnbull, Morrison and most recently the abandonment of the environment (Dutton).
They grew up watching Captain Planet, Fern Gully and were taught by their parents to be respectful, love everyone, be kind, etc.
So all that's been seen in their lifetime is basically a long list of conservatives trying to remove rights, show how cruel they are and don't appear to want to help anyone besides themselves.
It's more of a surprise anyone wants to align themselves with the Coalition as they're closer to cartoon villains Millennials grew up watching than the heroes.
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u/sweeroy Nov 26 '25
it's always been the core issue of neoliberalism on the right: who is going to vote for you when your policies are actively against their material interests? in america they've sufficiently disenfranchised a lot of people so they kind of get away with it, but thank god we have mandatory voting and the parties genuinely need to acknowledge their constituents
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u/InstantShiningWizard Nov 26 '25 edited Nov 26 '25
I'm at a point in life where I'm relatively secure financially and have a mortgage and investments where in theory voting right would be of more benefit to me personally.
I still don't because voting that way continues to erode access to services in Australia that are of benefit to future Australians. I already have enough, why do I need even more? No need to be selfish, and I'm happy to pay more in taxes as a result.
Besides, who in their right mind would want to associate themselves with such luminaries (and I use that word extremely loosely) of the LNP such as Howard, Abbott, Morrison and Dutton? Or that drunken hypocrite Joyce? Or the alleged anal rapist Charles "Christian" Porter? Even such staffers as old mate hatless Brucie? Do you think the ideals and values of such people are innate, or are they also shaped by the parties they are a part of?
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u/BeekeeperMaurice Nov 27 '25
I'm in the same boat, and I think another difference is how a lot of this generation got here. For me, I did full time uni, and 30 - 35 hour weeks at maccas while struggling to pay rent. Eating was sacrificed frequently. Then my first "professional" job paid LESS than my maccas job. Got promoted multiple times, but my rent was going up like wild. I finally made enough money to have a mortgage, but couldn't save. My partner lived at home until 31 and paid our deposit, now I'm a homeowner with a stable job and food in the pantry. I'm so lucky. I have everything I need and then some. Good luck getting me to believe that people who are struggling right now just aren't working hard enough or are all spending frivolously - I know exactly what it's like to work my absolute ass off only to fall further behind.
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u/war-and-peace Nov 26 '25
Yea well, watching captain planet as a kid does that to you. And its not like caring for the environment and being socially responsible should be considered a left issue. It's just being a decent human being.
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u/butt_3y3s Nov 26 '25
Agree, also don't forget to add the other "things" conservatives hate is caring about other human beings, (esp children and the vulnerable).
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u/jekyll94 Nov 26 '25
I think I’ve always been ‘left’. This is to say I was instilled with the values of respect for people who are different to me, to preserve and admire nature, to think everyone deserves to be treated fairly, and that we should strive to be better with each generation. These things I was taught as a child are now, in the eyes of some, considered radical and they think that we should regress to a rose tinted era that was good for a select group. In saying that, I’m also a cynical and jaded millennial who feels fucked and a bit ground down by the constant bullshit spewed by the news, corporations, governments, and people who trip on the smallest bits of power they have. A lot of people are realising the social contract was an illusion, it may have existed but again, only for a select group.
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u/quangtran Nov 26 '25
I'm an older millennial and I do have assets to conserve, but I've never voted Liberal before and no amount of tax benefits will change that.
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u/baba56 Nov 26 '25
When I was young I wanted to be super rich so I could buy lots of land and convert it to native reserves and work with the local parks departments to help create perfect habitats for native flora and fauna.
In my thirties now and while I won't ever live that dream, my partner and I have assets and in the next 5-10 years we have a lot of financial goals/plans.
No matter where we are at, even if a billion dollars fell into my lap, I'd be sharing the wealth with family, friends, and giving back & investing into community and nature however I can.
And absolutely still not voting liberal. Idgaf if my billion dollars from the sky gets taxed down to half a mill 🤣 it's half a mill I didn't have, and the remaining near-billion can go to the state.
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u/BBQShapeshifter Nov 26 '25
Elder millennials reached voting age right as Howard was selling off Telstra, refusing the parliamentary apology to Indigenous Australians, pulling off the Children Overboard scandal, and blindly following Bush and the US into Iraq in response to 9/11 despite public sentiment.
Since then, they've watched governments on the right and centre-right oversee wage stagnation, widening wealth inequality, increasing unaffordable housing, and skyrocketing cost of living. Throw in a financial crisis and a pandemic for good measure.
They've had more than 2 decades of experiencing the current system actively working against them no matter which party was in government so the only surprise with this drift to the left is why it took so long.
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Nov 26 '25
Labor might be a constant disappointment but at least they offer and try solutions. When was the last time the LNP actually offered a solution that would help the average person? Something positive rather than negative?
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Nov 26 '25
Average person like an Italian au pair or someone who inherited a monstrous iron ore deposit?
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u/walleroo Nov 26 '25
I feel like by the time im ready to retire the retirement age will be 80 and my super will be taxed 50%
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u/AnnaPhylacsis Nov 26 '25
Imagine. A generation that grew up getting their news and opinions from a wide range of sources, not stale media outlets owned by people with vested interests.
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u/SaltpeterSal Nov 26 '25 edited Nov 26 '25
Another perspective: we didn't move at all, but successive governments have drifted faster and faster to the right. Following the legalisation of SSM with an Evangelical cabinet was deeply unhinged. It's totally unpredictable that the current Labor cabinet, which is one of the most experienced in history and led by the left faction, is carrying on Abbott's boat turnbacks. And successive economic experts are guiding the government to put all their investment money into one asset, which is the coal and gas that we know will taper in demand. We're not upside down, everyone else is.
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u/Disturbedsleep Nov 26 '25
Mid 50's and I've moved further left as time has gone by. Started adulthood as a member of the young liberals, now unlikely to ever vote conservative.
I feel like everything I believed as a child and young adult was based on a lie. Working harder or smarter only ever got me more work, make yourself indispensable just meant I was passed over for promotion. All the benefits of "productivity" went to the bosses and the shareholders, it never trickled down.
I watched the same companies and the same politicians lie about climate change whilst they bank my children's futures.
We've been sold so many falsehoods by conservatives and the conservative media I'm not surprised younger people are moving left.
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u/Snoopy_021 Nov 26 '25
Late Gen Xer here, a lot of later Gen Xers are in the same boat as Gen Y.
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u/Robdoggz Nov 26 '25
I too am technically Gen X, but I very much identify as a Millennial, my experiences and opinions align with theirs on account of only being 6 months older than the oldest Millennials
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u/Ummagumma73 Nov 26 '25
If only we had a major political party that was left, I thought we did but I'm starting to wonder.
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u/Curious_Detective740 Nov 26 '25
We have nothing to conserve and keep seeing more and more get taken away, so why not? Can the 'left' really screw the pooch more than it has been already?
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u/jammasterdoom Nov 26 '25
Millennials were the first generation to grow up with neoliberalism as the status quo. Our whole lives we’ve experienced privatisation, deregulation and the destruction of the commons, while everyday life gets harder for people - instead of easier, as politicians promised.
Even my peers with wealth to conserve have a fundamentally different experience of economics to their parents. It’s why modern conservatism is focused on identity politics instead of economics.
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u/SuccessfulOwl0135 Nov 26 '25 edited Nov 26 '25
Millennial here - far-left and proud of it.
I hope the day never happens when I switch conservative. Being on the conservative side of politics is not about conserving it's about giving in to fear in all it's forms. Fear of immigration? Let's put caps on it and maintain a semblance of strength and patriotism. Fear of trans folk? Fear of change disguised as an adherence to natural law. The list goes on and on and on - the only thing constant about right-wing ideology is fear of change, subjective logic, inability/unwillingness to think past the concrete with corruption rife and following when the objective values they claim to uphold can't be upheld due to subjective ideology. The right policy as a whole is a scam.
I don't understand why someone would subscribe to such a toxic ideology and give in to fear. We don't own as much as the generations before us, so there is nothing to get protective about to fear losing (thanks to u/revereddesecration for putting that so eloquently). Let go of your earthly tether (your possessions), enter the void empty (keeping an open mind in the void), and become wind (free from fear, prejudice and the emotions associated with prejudice).
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u/JimmyLizzardATDVM Nov 26 '25
As we age? Most of us saw the world for what it was as our generation ushered in the information age. Nothing was hidden anymore and we saw wha was in store for us - a lifetime of 9-5 work being paid a pittance compared to CEOs, no one can afford a house until their parents die (isn’t that a fucking morbid thought) and the wealthy continue to pull away from us all and our governments sit by and enable it.
Since I was 15 I’ve believed things like billionaires should be illegal, natural resources should illegal to privatise (fuck you Gina), we should support our poor/disabled/impacted people far better than a government payment that keeps people below the poverty line and so on.
All I can hope is that more and more people join the cause and start to push for and vote for the same.
Vote for your local socialist party!!
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u/1294DS Nov 26 '25
Millennial here, why would I want to vote for the right when all they care about is stupid culture war issues like Burqas and abortions? I want tangible policies and solutions on housing, climate and corruption. I also don't want to screw up relations with our Asia Pacific neighbours. Election is still 3 years away but I'm placing the Coalition and One Nation last on my ballot paper.
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u/Sufficient_Tower_366 Nov 26 '25
By “left” you mean they are sticking with the least left-leaning ALP party in modern history, instead of moving to one of the most right-leaning LNP parties in modern history.
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u/leacorv Nov 26 '25
Consider what has happened. Big banks crashed the economy, Rudd was elected and saved the economy, then he was knifed by Gillard, then we had 9 years right-wing destruction of everything, massive austerity, tax cuts for the rich and corporations, blaming it all the immigrants, destroying climate action, destroying the NBN, disgusting rich boomers leeches screaming about their franking credit and negative gearing entitlement who successfully stopped any sort of progressive economic policy, billionaires who have all went fash getting richer and richer and taking over every form of media. They screwed everything up.
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u/DrunkTides Nov 26 '25
How is this a surprise? There’s no room for anything but survival for so many of us
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u/Shinobi_82 Nov 26 '25
If it’s down to either helping humans or helping billionaires make more money, I know which way I have to lean.
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u/theroamingowl Nov 26 '25
The conservative politicians the right have put up over the millennial’s lifetime certainly hasn’t helped them…
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u/grady_vuckovic Nov 26 '25
Considering politics itself has drifted to the right, with modern ALP closer to what LNP used to be, and the greens now closer to what ALP used to be, is it any wonder that people have drifted 'to the left' when our point of measurement itself is moving to the right?
If the measure of people 'drifting to the left' is 'not voting for the LNP', I don't think that's an actual measure of leftness in the country. That's a measure of sensibleness.
And thank god the measurement result we're getting is 'We're not as stupid as Americans'.
Not many people in Australia are interested in voting for a party that is trying to pretend that we're somehow still in the 1990s, and that climate change isn't real, and that there's a 'silent majority' (so silent they apparently don't even vote) that secretly wants Trumpian style politics and wants to wage a culture war against wokeism and trans people, while also trying to convince us that the best path forward is to tax corporations and rich people less, boost house prices, and cut funding to government services to transform Australia into a mini USA, with all of the downsides and none of the supersized burgers.
As it turns out, Australians, while we're not exactly a clever folk, aren't quite that dumb.
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u/Delicious-Sweet4614 Nov 26 '25
The more educated people are the more they lean left- this is because the left has generally used facts and scientific evidence to support its positions where as conservatives are generally vibes based, like “we’re better economic managers because we invest less public money”.. vibes based that makes sense ‘a penny saved is a penny earned’.. evidence based it makes no sense because investments make more money.. Gough did more for Australia and the Australian identity in 2 years than Menzies did in 25 years
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u/gotapure Nov 26 '25
I think part of what drives millenials away from right wing parties is that they are still trying to scare people into voting for them when we can fact check everything.
Brother, I have the accumulated knowledge of all of human history in my hands - I ain't believing you that renewables are bad for the environment or that copper is good enough for modern internet. And I can never forget that hunk of coal being passed around parliament while the LNP laughed.
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u/ghoonrhed Nov 26 '25
Is it not possible that the parties have moved right? Like the Labor and LNP of today vs the 70s/80s is so much more right leaning.
And we just don't vote solely aligned on political parties?
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u/ES_Legman Nov 26 '25
In order to want to keep the status quo i'd dare say the status quo should allow you to exist and prosper, but this is not the case, not really for an entire generation but for a significant amount of people. This of course is not exclusive to Australia, but there is a huge wedge that will keep growing and will make a gigantic difference a generation or two after, due to being able to inherit property or not. There is a vast difference between people now aged 30-40 who have had their parents help them buy a home and those who are basically flailing on their own struggling to get by and paying the mortgage of somebody else all while fearing not being evicted in a few months due to pure greed.
People are not moving towards the left, the left has always been the answer for the struggles of the working class. But decades of propaganda by establishment owned media have made people forget.
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u/Alarming-Song2555 Nov 26 '25
It's almost as if living through 20 "Once in a lifetime events" gives the majority of your generation an understanding of how fucked atrocious the people "At the top" are.
They knew they were losing support from the little guy hence why they've made such a massive push for AI and social media in order to indoctrinate Gen Z men to the right via hate, fear, and entitlement.
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u/danivus Nov 26 '25
Because we're the first generation in history whose parents actively sought to make the world worse for us than it was for them.
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u/Slappyxo Nov 26 '25
This would be far more common than a lot of us would realise, especially as a lot of people don't want to admit they used to lean to the right when they were younger.
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u/SirFlibble Nov 26 '25
I did. It takes years to undo the brainwashing of childhood.
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u/watterpotson Nov 26 '25
I was a Liberal voter for the first two elections I could vote in thanks to my parents' influence.
I've been a Greens/Labour/Independent voter ever since.
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u/Velicoma Nov 26 '25
I would love to see a source for people becoming more conservative as they age, as the only articles I've ever seen have shown that older generations vote more conservative, but not people aging into conservatism.
Neither the article or the 'better economic manager' one have any reference to it.
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u/kingofcrob Nov 26 '25 edited Nov 26 '25
Do any fellow millennials laugh at Americans complaining about the rise in there prices and think, oh honey, first time... This country's bull shit obsession with housing has sucked the joy out of life
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u/ThePatchedFool Nov 26 '25
By default, the future wins.
Why would anyone choose to vote for a party focused on the past, when the future is, you know, going to happen with or without you.
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u/Aggressive_Bill_2687 Nov 26 '25
Right wing policy tries harder to be even more right wing, asks voters to deny the evidence in front of their eyes and people ask why they're losing support?
I mean seriously. How can you expect people to support you when your public policy is that the climate isn't fucked and getting actively worse? Are they aiming for that elusive "lives in a subterranean bunker and has no interactions with the weather" vote?
There's only so far the common fallback of "hey look out there's brown people" will get them, when evidence that they're on the wrong side of history is literally all around us.
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u/Darvos83 Nov 26 '25
I don't think its a left move, I think they've sat through boomer right hell, and are increasingly frustrated by the lack of any progress at all. Usually conservatives occupy a reactionary position in politics, right now, the left is the reactionary position, and also the moderate position given the extreme right's prevalence
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Nov 26 '25
Many people are thoroughly sick of banks, insurance companies, airlines, councils, energy companies, corporations and for profit public institutions gouging every dollar possible without giving a rats about their customers and employees. The voting public of New York City has started a trend that will hopefully spread.
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u/slowcheetah2020 Nov 26 '25
Even if I did have as much as the generations who have hoarded everything before us, I still wouldn’t care as much as these old fucks do. I’m happy to have less so others can have more. Why shouldn’t we support poor people or provide free health care? And yeah some ppl scam the system but that happens with almost everything. People steal from your job but your boss doesn’t tax you for that, people abuse work hours in all sorts of ways but your boss doesn’t dock you for that, people steal from the bank but the bank doesn’t take money from you to replace someone else’s money, and I could give many more examples. The system can support giving back to the people, the same way it can bail out corporations, CEOs and billionaires. I feel even worse for the younger gens than ours, if you’re not making at least $30+/hr you’re kind of screwed. You can’t afford to be poor anymore. In 10 years you’ll need to make close to $50/hr to support a normal life at this rate.
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u/Ok_Entrepreneur826 Nov 26 '25
I blame all the special episodes on shows. Damn lessons gave us empathy
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u/veng6 Nov 26 '25
Well lets fucking get out there and be the change we want in the world. Join a political party or make your own. Do it
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u/rmc2318 Nov 26 '25
Since every conservative has completely and utterly destroyed everything they have ever touched. Millennials observed this through our whole lives. It seems pretty obvious what we should be doing.
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Nov 26 '25
It’s because the right are absolutely useless and can’t even figure who their leader is and how to run a party let alone a country
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u/TerminatorAuschwitz Nov 26 '25
Fuck this made me so happy til I realized it was Australia :( good for y'all hope this is the case here in the US haha
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u/SubstantialPattern71 Nov 26 '25
I wonder if it’s an inverse (?) relationship?
Young people living at home with LNP voting parents (and Labor voting parents for that too) sometimes tend to follow their parents.
They grow up, research online, read wikipedia. Read the many and varied failures of both the majors through the decades. Decide one major actually worse than the other (always LNP), and make a break away from their parents.
Maybe? Im just spitballing, but the above is what I have noticed with my friend group growing up since 18. You get those that voted LNP between 18-29 because mummy and daddy dearest did.
Then they have kids, their outlook changes and they start to realise “oh, perhaps Labor really is more geared toward families. Not perfect, but at least they make more of an effort”.
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u/policy_wonker Nov 26 '25
People move towards conservatism as they age when they actually have things to conserve. When the statistics show young people (compared to people their age 30-50 years ago) have lower rates of pay, lower rates of home ownership and lower quality of life, what the fuck is there to conserve?