Young people say they are frustrated at politicians not dealing well with their interests in this year's election.
They admit that opinions vary, but say on balance, many of the issues raised by the competing political parties do not address the interests of people in their teens and early 20s.
Their comments follow an earlier report showing Millennials and Generation Z were worse affected by the cost of living crisis than any other age group.
But new comments suggest their interests are not being well served by competing politicians in the current campaign, either.
"We are pretty disappointed that tertiary education has featured as a side note in most education policies, or has not featured at all," says the national president of the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations, Ellen Dixon.
"There is a lot of frustration, because there is that sense of a divide between the different generations as to what is being prioritised."
Dixon says New Zealand politics is skewed towards the middle classes, who have some money, so younger people are less likely be in the spotlight.
"I think we also see some selectiveness about what types of young people are being showcased by the political parties.....which means that activism like ours, which is rights-based activism, tends to be moved to the side," Dixon says.
"The priority is not intergenerationalism, which means politicians are not looking at things like student debt, or the inability of many students to be able to afford to live."
Dixon says student debt is often compounded with other financial obligations and is loading people down with an economic burden early in their life.
"There is an increased normalising of debt," she says.
"We have done some studies that show that student loans combined with other things like credit card debt that young people are taking on prior to getting a mortgage, will impact on whether they can actually get a mortgage."
Some parties such as the Greens want to explore ways to mitigate student debt, without saying how the current $15.9 billion debt will actually be paid for.
Some parties are also offering a guaranteed student allowance, but Dixon thinks there needs to be a far more robust debate on subjects like these across the spectrum.
'It really doesn't feel like a youth election'
The range of debate at this election is also concerning the activist group, Generation Vote. This organisation actually sets out to be the politicians' best friend. It runs workshops to teach high school students about parliament, government, the MMP system, lawmaking, the Treaty of Waitangi, and local government.
But its Otago branch director, Liam White, has noted a tone among the competing parties this year that runs counter to the values of this programme.
"It really doesn't feel like a youth election," 21-year-old White says, contrasting it with earlier electoral experience.
"It really felt like young people were central to the discussion. It felt like, Oh wow, there is a recognition that young people are the future, but a lot of people aren't feeling that any more," says White.
"And that is going to translate into, 'I'm not going to the ballot box, I'm not going to have any traditional political engagement'."
White says tertiary education, mental health, housing and child poverty are issues for young people but they are not getting enough attention in electoral campaigning. And he suggests there may be some Realpolitik going on, with National and ACT fearing young people will vote for Labour or the Greens and so pushing them far down their priority list.
Sage Garrett is another young person who is concerned with this. He is a student at Hillcrest High in Hamilton and would love to vote in this year's election. At 17, he can't, but it is not for want of trying. Garrett is a co-director of the lobby group, Make It 16, which took the Government to court, saying the 18 year franchise rule was discrimination based on age.
The group won their case, and the Labour Government responded by supporting a change in the rules. This idea foundered, because opposition in parliament meant it could not get the super majority which is needed for constitutional change.
But Garrett is philosophical, and thinks a compromise measure, allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in local government elections, is a good start.
"It was a wonderful moment seeing that happen," he says.
Garrett bows to reality over the prospects of 16 and 17-year-olds getting the vote in general elections under current conditions. But this failure is still affecting his feelings about this year's poll.
"It is not allowing for proper representation of young New Zealanders," he says.
'A lot of things that young people really care about are things like mental health, climate justice and our education system. All these things really affect us directly.
"A lot of them have been given some weight, but not really to the extent that young people want them to be.
"What we need to do is enlarge the vote so that we can have our voices heard in legislation."
More action wanted on climate change
Garrett adds while politicians have made promises on climate change, they do not go nearly far enough, according to him and many of his friends.
Garrett says this year's election is not a completely negative story, as the franchised over 18s are getting some sort of look-in, via special debates for young people.
But it remains to be seen whether this will be enough to get young people to actually turn out and vote in large numbers.
So far in this election there has been a lower advance voting turnout than in the 2020 election. This has led to fears there might be a smaller turnout of voters overall than in previous years.
It is not clear how much young people figure in the early voting statistics.
Last election's official results showed a low overall turnout for young people with just 60.9% of the eligible population of 18 to 24 year-olds bothering to vote. By contrast, 85.3% of the over 70s voted.
Garrett says the Make It 16 campaign might be a way to overcome this.
"What we have seen in evidence from overseas is that 16 and 17-year-olds turn out to vote at a higher rate than their slightly older counterparts, and the younger that people, start to vote, the more likely they are to vote for the rest of their lives."
"A lower voting age will bring in a new generation of lifelong voters," says Garrett.
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