Elise Worthington follows up on the Twitter scandal involving Queensland Family First candidate, Wendy Francis, in which she announced that same sex marriage was tantamount to child abuse. Elise headed straight to Wendy’s HQ to test her views. Through some genuine cross-examination, Elise reveals how some politicians are out of their depth in the complex world of social networking. Wendy admits she doesn’t “twitter” and has no idea how it works, but sticks to her guns about same-sex marriage being a no-no.

Meanwhile over in the seat of Longman, the 20-year-old Liberal National Party candidate Wyatt Roy charms the senior citizens. Elise follows the decorated Wyatt wagon to find out how aligned the young candidate  is with Tony Abbott — especially on issues like gay marriage.

Steve Fielding might just be Australia’s favourite blundering Senator. But Melbourne’s Alex Mann took the Family First representative seriously enough to repeatedly demand that he define more distinctly his favourite terms: “ordinary Australians” and “their families”. Sorry who?

Emma James seeks out well-known political personality, Cheryl Kernot. Kernot is joining Simon Cant on an Independent ticket for the NSW Senate in Saturday’s election. Emma doesn’t cross-examine her motives for party-switching but gleans the views of a highly experienced political identity. Cheryl shares her many thoughts on leadership in Australian politics, maternity leave, Indigenous empowerment, the role of the Senate and the power of one. Or two.

Finding Warren H. Williams in the studios at CAAMA radio in Alice Springs, Joel Philp disarmed the unlikely Greens Senate candidate by talking about a common interest — music. They discuss the country music legend’s potential to become Australia’s third Indigenous Senator. Williams reveals how he moves easily between white and black worlds and how having a female prime minister is paving the way for Indigenous people to get into the Big House on the hill.

Back in Queensland, Naomi Lim seeks out the former erotic actor, now Sex Party Senate Candidate, Tim Sheen. When he tells her he is passionate about the issue of censorship, she gets his views on the net filter and discovers some context for the somewhat misunderstood party.

And just in today, Adelaide’s Lucas De Boer’s frank and friendly discussion with the Minister for Youth Affairs, Kate Ellis in which she reflects on the highs and lows of being percieved as “young” in one of the oldest games in the country.

There’s others too, like hot pick for the seat of Melbourne, Greens’ Adam Bandt; the Shadow Minister for Youth Affairs and Gold Coast Liberal, Steve Ciobo and not to be missed — all the Julias!

Watch electionWIRE to meet the candidates at their most candid, in conversation with the election campaign’s youngest, most optimistic, energetic and least seasoned reporters.

Luckily a majority of young people are doing well in the Australian community – but unfortunately there are many young people who face many challenges and it’s not good enough for political parties to continue to ignore them.

• Did you know that 50% of Australia homelessness population are aged under 25?
• Did you know that young people are 4 times more likely to experience mental health problems?
• Did you know that the youth unemployment rate is nearly 5 times higher than that of the rest of the population?

These are serious issues that need the attention of our community and our political leaders, not simply bandaid solutions that are aimed more at winning votes rather than dealing with the problems.

The Australian Youth Affairs Coalition (AYAC) is committed to bringing attention to the varied needs of young people and in particular those who are experiencing difficulty. We want to see greater investment in programs and initiatives that are developed based on the evidence available to us.

We also want to see increased resources and funding extended to the community sector, who play an essential role in providing a range of services to those most at need in our community.

Something also needs to change in the way that young people are perceived and treated within our community. We need to see a more positive attitude to young people’s rights. AYAC believes that one step towards this is the introduction of a National Commissioner for Children and Young People who would be focused on monitoring and advocating for the varied needs of young people in the Australian community.

Many of the Australian States and Territories have children’s Commissioners and many other countries have also introduced them. These Commissioners are achieving positive outcomes for young people and its time that Australian political parties make a genuine commitment to young people and provided cross party support for a National Commissioner.

Young people are an important part of the Australian community, and they cannot simply be ignored. We need to ensure they have the support the need to thrive and survive whether that be in their educational life, in their physical and mental health or when it comes to contributing to the community via employment.

Our friends at Express Media are also covering the federal election on their site, Electioneering. This is the first installment of regular weekly updates on what the Electioneers have been covering.

Fraser Allison reported back on Adam Bandt’s talk at The Wheeler Centre and tackled the mainstream media’s assumptions that young people just don’t care about politics in “Those Dumb Kids Just Don’t Want To Vote”:

Young people must be morons, right? That’s the impression I get from reading the newspapers lately. When they’re not letting down the nation with their lack of work ethic and their hyperactive attention spans, they’re stuffing up our electoral system by being too lazy to enrol to vote.

Meanwhile, Fatima Malik took a closer look at the many facets of Kevin Rudd in her piece, “What’s Rudd Got To Do With It?” and took on Labor’s Internet Filter in “Coffee Should Be Filtered, Not The Internet“:

There are very few people who would argue with the intended purpose of the Internet filter, which is to prevent the proliferation of child pornography. However the facts suggest that is unlikely to be the outcome.

Dylan Bird was enraged by a video which declared openly that the problem with The Greens is their lack of religious affiliation:

According to onevote.com.au, it is not so much the Greens’ ability to negotiate in government that is the main question mark hanging over them. Nor is it their ability to communicate effectively to present themselves as a viable alternative to the two major parties. Rather, the most cancerous, dangerous and some might say demonic attribute haunting the Greens is their lack of belief in God. The thought of such a party controlling the balance of power in the Senate is utterly horrifying.

Sophie Trevitt lamented the lack of Bob Brown in this year’s election in her article, “Bob, Where Are You?” and followed it up with a response, “Where’s Bob? He’s Just Busy Tweeting”:

I sent a rather indignant email to Bob Brown the other day. I followed it up with an equally frustrated voicemail.

Essentially, I berated him for not being the inspirational and credible figurehead that he has been for the environmental movement for decades. I questioned his lack of visibility in an election that arguably presents one of the most monumental and significant chances the Greens have had of becoming a very powerful political force.

Zach Kitschke spoke with Avril Henry, to explore the reasons why young people aren’t too enthused by modern politics in “Why Is The status quo the only go?”:

This election has become a choice between two parties with very few differences. We’ve seen a race to the centre as both Gillard and Abbott try to prove to voters that they would be the best at maintaining the status quo. This has been at the expense of pragmatic policy making.

And Joel Tozer explored “The Missing Force Of Katter” in this year’s Federal Election:

Bob Katter, local member for Kennedy, QLD, is the kind of person the 2010 election campaign has so far been missing. He’s 100% the real Bob and he’s not afraid to pull up his sleeves and “put up a fight”. And while he’s not looking to run the country, he does have a support base that would make both the major parties envious.

Want more? Subscribe to Electioneering, become a fan on Facebook or follow us on Twitter

On Tuesday August 10 Vibewire Youth Inc. will be hosting a free gala event from 6 – 8pm in the Loft at the UTS Tower building, showcasing the best of electioneWIRE’s youth reportage on the federal election. Come and meet some of the electionWIRE reporters, the Vibewire and electionWIRE teams, and see what they’ve accomplished so far!

electionWIRE is a channel for young Australians to report on the federal election their way. It’s a space where hard-hitting journalism meets insightful user-generated content.

Vibewire and YouTube teamed up to recruit and train a team of young reporters who are now stationed across Australia. Directed by a team of seasoned political reporters and editors, the electionWIRE reporters have been producing feature video news, interviews, opinions and debate — and encouraging other young people to do the same.

On the night we will be showcasing some of the electionWIRE reporter’s best works, as well as some cracking user generated videos we’ve received over the past few weeks. It will be a great opportunity to see how young people are creating user generated content to shape the game this time around.

This is a new era in political debate, and this time young people aren’t just watching election coverage, they’re creating it!

Enquiries:

Vibewire Youth Inc.

Brittany Taylor, Online Producer

(02) 9660 6591 or 0401807753

brittany.taylor@vibewire.org

I once heard someone liken the issue of climate change to that of smoking 30 years ago. The vast majority of evidence demonstrated that smoking caused cancer, but there was some evidence (mostly from research funded by tobacco companies) that this was not the case. This is analogous to the current debate over climate change. The vast majority of research shows that human activity, specifically the emission of greenhouse gases, causes climate change; there are a few theories and some evidence (mostly from research funded by major polluters) that this is not the case. The question that we must now ask ourselves is, do we act now on the evidence that we have, or do we wait, and potentially give the world the environmental equivalent of cancer?

The complexity of the issue necessitates moral, economic and social trade offs which  make climate a politically fraught issue. However, each and every person around the world will be affected by a changing climate, and although we do not all contribute equally to the problem, we will all have to shoulder the burden of both mitigating the problem, and adapting to the unavoidable climate change already underway.

Research over the last 20 or so years has shown that we are currently facing an unavoidable rise in global temperatures of 1-2 degrees Celsius by 2100. The international consensus seems to be that countries should work together to restrain global temperature rises to 2-3 degrees to avoid environmental catastrophe and the economic and social consequences of that. To this end, Australia needs to reduce its carbon emissions by 60-90% of that released in 2000 by 2050.

That is a lot of work to be done in a relatively short period of time. It becomes even shorter when we put that number, 40 years, into perspective. In 2050, I will be younger than my mother is now- to me that really drives home the point that climate change is not some distant problem for future generations to deal with- the problems that it poses are immediate and will only intensify in the future. Climate change is our problem to deal with, or to live with the consequences.

Indeed, there is considerable support within the Australian population for immediate and significant action on climate change. According to research recently conducted by Left Right Think Tank, this is especially true for young Australians. Indeed, the research showed that young Australians wanted substantial action on climate change, which aimed to reduce current emissions and fund research into renewable technology, and most were willing to “pay more” if such action was take. The study showed that many young Australians were dissatisfied with the current policies as they are perceived as not doing enough to combat the problem. Respondents also expressed real fears that there would be too much delay in passing legislation that would have a substantial impact, resulting in irreversible damage to the environment.

Despite this, neither of the major political parties seems capable of summoning the will to really act on climate change. Watching the leaders’ debate on Sunday, I couldn’t help but notice the distinct lack of leadership on this issue. Neither Julia Gillard, nor Tony Abbott where ready or willing to lead in the difficult task of setting a cap on carbon and ensuring that we meet that target. On the contrary, the policies that Labor and the Lib/Nationals have offered are smokescreens for their lack of commitment to real action on climate change. Both have stated that they aim to reduce emissions by 5% by 2020, with a possible rise to 15% if there is international commitment to a climate change agreement.

Under Gillard, the Labor Party has taken a massive step back from the Emissions Trading Scheme proposed under Rudd. Instead, Gillard has proposed a “citizen’s assembly” to encourage community consensus on a cap on carbon. For many this flies in the face of the mandate given to Labor at the last election to act on this issue. Labor’s political stasis was further emphasised during the leaders’ debate when Gillard refused to outline what sort of deadline we are on to take action on the issue before it is too late to meet our target of 5% by 2020.

Just as disappointingly, Tony “Climate-Change-is-Crap” Abbott has put forward a policy that does practically nothing to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by Australian firms. Instead, the Coalition’s policy aims meet targets through measures such as green infrastructure, planting trees and funding incentives to business and industry to reduce emissions if they should so choose. The problem with this plan is that we will eventually have to put a cap on carbon emissions if we are to meet the targets required to keep climate change to a manageable level. Not dealing with current emissions means that we are not dealing with the problem.

The longer that our government delays the implementation of such a scheme the more extreme the action we will need to take when one is implemented. This shows how shallow the climate change policies of the major parties are; rather than creating a policy that allows us to slowly adjust to changes required to mitigate climate change, both parties are creating a situation in which later governments will need to step up and make even more difficult choices to address the challenges that we will inevitably face.

As such, I would suggest to both leaders that they stand up and show some courage on the issue of climate change. We need our leaders to explain to the Australian people that the cost of mitigating climate change will be less if we pay now, as higher costs in the immediate future will reduce costs in the long run. Indeed, it should also be noted that even with significant curbs on our emissions our economy is projected to continue to grow (and not at dissimilar rates to that if we did not act to mitigate climate change). We need our leaders to explain the extreme costs of not acting, both economic and environmental.

Most importantly, we need leaders with moral courage and the integrity to take action now.

In between the fair dinkums and the moving forwards neither leader strayed too far from their talking points in the first leaders’ debate of the election.  Gillard and Abbott weren’t allowed to interrupt each other and everybody played very nice. In fact, only the very polite MC David Speers got to interject and he was at pains not to abuse the privilege.

Even the various worms looked a bit bored – but at least those lucky 150 undecided voters in the studio audiences got to interact with the debate. Otherwise, a few lucky tweeters saw their posts flicker across the tickertape on Channel 9 – and everybody else got stuck talking to the television.

Fear not! At #electionWIRE, we’re planning on doing things a little differently. Our reporters have started posting videos on the site and you’re welcome to start debating the issues in the comments.

YouTubers and members of the #electionWIRE community are also getting in on the action. They’re submitting videos already – and you should too.

And the forum for submitting story ideas has exploded with suggestions. Log in to the #electionWIRE YouTube channel and click on Submit A Story to have your say. Not only can you tell the #electionWIRE reporters what sort of stories you want to see, you can comment on other people’s ideas and bump the best ones up the queue.

Here’s a sample of the ideas that our reporters are currently sorting through. Get yourself to the site and tell us what issues matter to you in this election – and we promise not to send you to sleep!

• The Net Filter: What happens if Labor is re-elected, will Stephen Conroy be resurrecting the idea?
• Do young people care about Australia’s involvement in the Iraq War? Or any war for that matter? Do they care enough to remove a government from power?
• Is government funding a benefit or a hindrance for culture and the arts?
• Asylum Seekers: Stories which cut through the spin to show where the parties stand, what their policies are based on — and maybe a history of Refugee policies over the past 15 years.
• How does the election work and how do the houses of parliament operate? It amazes me how little people know about elections, preferences, seats, houses, constitution people know. How can someone vote when they don’t know the system?
• A question about the ALP: Is the NBN really going to cost us about fifty billion dollars.please give a detailed breakdown of how you got to this figure. who are the shareholders in the company and the tax implications for working families. are there any other options?
• I would like to talk about the new driving laws and restrictions for L plate and P plate drivers. I have a personal view and opinion about it that i would like to get out there!!
• Hi electionWIRE – can you find out from politicians what they want Australia to be known for in 10 years time?
• I hear “Big Australia” is off the agenda. Shouldn’t we discuss this a bit further? Australia has a population (22m) just a touch more than the metro New York City area (19m). That’s just one city. How do we support our glorious country in the future?

Tell us what’s important to you this election campaign — and let’s have a good rowdy debate of our own!

For full election coverage head to the electionWIRE YouTube Channel.

They say that a week is a long time in politics, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the next five weeks, running up to Federal Election, are going to fly by. And within that time, many of us will have to make up our minds about how we will vote- we will have to make a decision that will impact upon our lives every day for the next three years and then beyond.

Some have accused Generation Y of political inertia. In The Age (18/07) on Sunday, Gretel Killeen claimed that our generation is indifferent to voting, irresponsibly disinterested in the political process and has thus far been incapable of independent thought. Killeen is wrong. Generation Y cares and it cares enough to take action. However, the action that we take does not always resemble that which was taken by the generations that came before us and to some, our use of social media, our awareness campaigns and product boycotts resemble political indifference. Such an interpretation is a mistake- our efforts in this regard are a means of augmenting the traditional political process which in the past has often left us feeling disengaged and disempowered.

Indeed, when it comes to voting for a particular party or political figure, making a decision, let alone the right decision, is difficult task. For many of us, election campaigns are confusing and frustrating. The speculations, promises and accusations often become a cacophony of noise from politicians with whom we find it increasingly difficult to identify. The issues debated by many politicians often appear to be disconnected from the lives of young Australians and the result is that many young Australians feel disengaged from the political process.

In some cases, young people believe that they are not informed enough about politics to meaningfully participate in national debates. This disengagement becomes even more pronounced when we sense that our opinions are neither being heard nor articulated by those in power. Our ambivalence then grows as we see promises brokens or policies that cause us to stand back, jaws agape, as we try to grasp the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of the decision making process behind them.

Despite these feelings of frustration and disempowerment, it is important to remember that voting does matter and our votes will have a considerable impact on the outcome of this election. Generation Y now makes up about 20 percent of the voting population in Australia. Other age brackets vote fairly consistently for one major party or the other- It is the youth of Australia that makes up much of the swing vote and our 20 percent is more than enough to decide the election.

Indeed, our generation has and continues to gain political strength, and this is not likely to change in the near future. In 2007 the youth vote was crucial to the ALP gaining government. Because of the growing power of Generation Y, those running for election are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of addressing the concerns of young Australians. Politicians are striving to engage with the youth of Australia and the issues that matter most to us are moving to the forefront of national political debate. The influence that we wield now is something that we should not waste.

We need to seize this opportunity to participate in the national political conversation and to make our voices heard. It’s time to have a proper conversation, one that moves beyond simple slogans and political hyperbole. We need to talk to our representatives, and those who run against them, about the things that matter to us. Equally as importantly, we need to speak to each other.

Rather than engaging with, or ignoring, the same old topics of ‘working families’ and ‘Aussie battlers’, we need to start talking about the issues that impact on our lives. We need to ask questions and demand honest answers about the rising cost of tertiary education, the difficulty of breaking into the job market, youth underemployment, youth homelessness and the impact of mental illness on young Australians. We need to discuss how we can ensure that Australia remains a country of justice, freedom and equality. And we need to seek out politicians who articulate our concerns about the future- issues such as climate change, an aging population, changing technology, resource scarcity and sustainability- and who offer workable solutions.

Over the next five weeks we will hear arguments from both the major and minor parties and we will be asked to make an important choice. We will be asked to help decide the future of our country. We cannot do this without seriously considering the options before us and, where possible, using our influence to shape policies that are responsive to our needs.

To that end, we should play a part in that debate and be certain our opinions heard. We need to make up our minds about the issues that matter to us. We need to formulate our choices wisely because the decisions we make on Election Day will affect us far into the future. By seeking answers and making informed decisions, we can cast our vote on August 21st with confidence, knowing that we have had, and will continue to have, a real say in the future of our nation.