The First-Time Voters Project is following the process leading up to the 2025 Federal Election to identify barriers first-time voters may face in deciding who should lead our nation.
In the first instalment of the Voter’s Voices series, we asked them to rate their general sense of confidence about voting for the first time. From the responses we received, it was clear that one barrier for young Australians lay in the lack of knowledge needed to choose who to vote for.
Past research has also shown that young voters’ choices were based on their levels of interest, knowledge and cognitive effort. We saw similar themes in this second instalment when we asked: How confident do you feel about which party to vote for? Many spoke of not having “done the research” yet, of lacking political knowledge or of a simple lack of interest. Many seemed very nervous about even being approached with questions about the election.
Here’s what they said:
“Do you want me to be completely honest? Guys, I have absolutely no clue. I haven’t done my research on it. You know what? Whatever my mum votes for, I’ll vote for.” Kristina, 19, she/her
“I am very confident in who I am voting for.” Esther, 18, she/her
“Not very confident because personally I’m not a very political person. I’m not really involved in focusing on which party but I know I have to vote so I’m going to have to learn, I guess.” Chloe, 18, she/her
“I don’t know too much about it but it’s my first time voting so I guess I have to know a little bit of knowledge of who to vote for and which, obviously, group gives the best for us.” Anasticia, 18, she/her
“Somewhat confident. I don’t know, but I have a little bit of an understanding, sort of, of what each one’s for.” Emma, 18, she/her
“Don’t really care to be honest. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t pay that much attention to it.” Samuel, 18, he/him
“I’d say not very confident because I don’t really know much, so not much to go off.” Brandon, 18, he/him
“I haven’t looked much into it at the moment. I’ll probably look into it when it’s coming around … but yeah, I can’t really comment because I don’t know much about it.” Michael, 18, he/him
“I’m not too sure. I haven’t really looked into it, so I’ll probably do it when it comes closer and I have to vote.” Lucas, 18, he/him
“Not confident. I don’t really know. Haven’t done my research.” Tom, 18, he/him
“I’m not confident in anything. I don’t know anything about political parties or anything.” Angelina, 19, she/her
Article: Ella Burns and Saskia Domanski
Photo: by Stanley Morales found HERE and used under a Creative Commons license. This image has been made black and white. The original image was colour.