In the lead-up to the federal election, upstart spoke to six first-time voters from all walks of life – from politically engaged activists to uninterested students – to understand how they felt about the election and their relationships with politics. Despite people’s differences, we found that many people don’t feel included in politics, regardless of their desire to be.

In May, these six people voted alongside 870,000 newly enrolled voters. We asked them questions both before and after their first time. Here’s what they said. This time we spoke to 35-year-old who is voting for the first time after getting his Australian citizenship.

Viktor* left his home in Belarus in 2011, and recently became an Australian citizen. Coming from a country that regularly conducts “sham” elections condemned by Australia and the European Union, Viktor has never formally voted. This means, in May, he voted in his first ever federal election at 35.

Viktor is not particularly interested in politics, does not know the differences between parties and candidates, and generally distrusts politicians. Like many first-time voters, he felt uncertain as the election neared, but planned to educate himself by May 3.

Were you politically engaged in Belarus?

Not really when I lived there. And I couldn’t care less, to be honest.

It’s probably because how things look in my country politically is just… It’s better not to care, so to say, it’s safer. But also, I just didn’t really care when I lived there.

And I started to care more since I moved out. I cannot really explain why it happened this way, but it’s not like I closely follow things. I just try to be on top of what is happening, but not sort of over the top.

What shapes your political values?

I would say that I really like processes myself, personally. And if I see a process working, even if I don’t fully agree with it, I feel that having a process is better than having total chaos.

And then also the process can be changed. As long as everyone adheres to it, that’s a big step to making things better. So, what I’m trying to say is that, in general, if I’m in the environment where I can see that people are following the rules and politicians at least try to make a conscious effort and noticeable progress, this naturally would make me trust the process.

Since you’ve been in Australia, have your political values changed over time?

I do believe in the political values that officially are recognised here.

But I cannot really say that I’m sure what I hear is true. So, I do believe in them in the sense that I share these values. But I cannot say I believe that this is exactly what is implemented.

You mentioned that there are some things you don’t like about the Australian system. Can you give some examples?

So, what I mean in the first place, and I don’t think I will surprise anyone by this, is what happens to the real estate markets. In my opinion, this is something that in a true democratic country should be thoroughly scrutinised and put under tight control.

I would argue that democracy is something that is about people, representatives ruling the country. But I don’t quite see how this is happening, because whoever is benefiting from this doesn’t seem to be common folk, but rather … a selected group of people who hold assets.

So, this indicates potentially some sort of corruption to me. Again, I don’t know the details, it’s just my sort of uneducated observation, I guess.

Do such problems make you interested in local politics? Maybe, if not federal, at least New South Wales politics?

That’s a good question. I probably should at least give it a try. I guess, because of my background, I kind of have this distrust hardwired in me.

And I don’t really have a positive opinion. It’s more like a predisposition to politicians. Like, I just distrust them.

You just voted for the first time. Can you tell a bit about your experience?

Well, it was a bit confusing to know who to vote for, but I used a couple of resources. Let’s see, Vote Compass, which helped to navigate this.

Other than that, I don’t know, it felt nice, like no long queues. I actually voted in Melbourne instead of Sydney, so on the interstate voting point and no queues whatsoever.

So, yeah, pretty good. I’m still unclear about what exactly were the policies and how to monitor them, so this is something we get to learn, I guess. …

There is a resource called ABC Vote Compass. It gives you a summary, it gives you a set of questions, and then it gives you a summary and tells you sort of where you belong … [and] where other parties are on this two-dimensional graph. So, I did that, that helped me a lot to at least understand.

And yeah, I also just did a summary with Chat GPT. I just sort of googled general governance.

*This is not his real name, which he asked us not to share for safety reasons.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Article: Aleksandr Prikhodko, Amy Ditcham, Ethan Withers, Katie Pavv and Lewis Cain-McAliece.

Photo: Supplied by talent and used with permission.