Campus Review Volume 28 - Issue 11 | November 2018 | Seite 16

industry & research
campusreview.com.au
What ScoMo should know
The number one issue concerning
most Australian voters.
Julia Cook interviewed by Loren Smith
W
hen then-Treasurer Scott
Morrison brought a lump of
coal into parliament in 2017,
pleading, “Don’t be afraid, don’t be scared,
it won’t hurt you,” he made a critical error.
That is, assuming he wants the Coalition to
retain power at the next federal election.
That’s because to Generations X and Y,
which together comprise the largest
14
segment of the voting public, combating
climate change is their priority.
This is a key finding of the University
of Melbourne’s Life Patterns report. The
longitudinal study, which followed a cohort
that left high school in 1991 and another
that left in 2006, further revealed that
although they both cared about minimising
the use of coal, they did so for different
reasons. Gen X generally worried about
their children’s health, whereas Gen Y
tended to want to protect future
generations.
Report co-author Dr Julia Cook, research
fellow at the Melbourne Graduate
School of Education, explained how the
researchers reached this conclusion.
“In 2017, we asked participants to
nominate the three most important
issues facing Australia.
“One major issue unites both generations:
concerns about the environment … Both
groups consistently expressed grave
concerns about the general lack of action
towards climate change mitigation from the
current government.”
Among the Gen X study participants
(aged 44–45), women were almost twice
as likely to think this than men, but among
the Gen Y participants (aged 29–30), men
predominantly held this view, albeit by
a slim margin: 40 per cent compared to
34 per cent.
“We’re not going to have air to breathe
soon,” a mother living in a country town said.
A father living in a rural area was equally
alarmed: “Climate change could ruin their
[his children’s] lives and our governments
are not acting.”
The other issues the groups aired tended
to reflect their respective life stages. For
instance, Gen Y were concerned about
jobs and housing affordability, while
Gen X were anxious about the cost of
living and education – a worry potentially
exacerbated by the federal government's
recent independent and Catholic schools
funding announcement.
In a conversation with Cook, Campus
Review dug deeper into the data to find
out more about the issues concerning
Generations X and Y.