To get someone or a society to change their behaviour, in this case to vote Liberal; you first have to understand what the knowledge, values, attitudes and beliefs are of those you wish to change.

Behaviour can be anything and everything; from why people believe in God, Satan or Allah, to why people buy red potatoes and drive white cars and won’t have children.

VOTING BLOC

It is crucial if the Liberals and their coalition partners are to ever regain the government benches, that they know the reason why the Millennials (born 1981 -1996) did not vote for them in sufficient numbers at the last general election.

The reason they need to understand is staring them in the face; Millennials and the older members of Gen Z (1997-2012) are now the biggest voting bloc in Australia; they represent more than 40 per cent of the electorate and they will decide who will form the next government.

Those two all-powerful cohorts now outnumber the Baby Boomers (1946-64) in both size and influence.

Research has shown that overall, the Millennials are the first generation in history to have a lower income and fewer assets than both their parents and grandparents had at their age.

It does not need the wisdom of Socrates to understand why they are unhappy, disillusioned and looking for someone to blame.

So far, they are not blaming this hopelessly incompetent Labor Government, and the Liberals need to know why; the Millennials are a generation under siege and not looking forward to an uncertain future.

For far too many as they try to save sufficient for a deposit on a million dollar plus home, their only option, including those who have partners, is to live with their parents in the same house and in the same bedroom they had from childhood.

Being under the watchful eye of mum and dad is putting an intolerable strain on many; it may be a stretch to say they are living with Alf Garnett but for many it is a genuine challenge.

The Millennials know by heart what life was like when their grandparents migrated; how hard they worked and, for many, what it was like with the added challenge of learning a new language.

Neither do they need telling that the first house their parents bought cost three times Dad’s annual income, which gave them opportunity to start a family early in their marriage.

The generation gap between the twenty somethings and the forty somethings is smaller than it has ever been.

 One big difference between the generations is that the Millennials have suffered from the belief that came in during the Hawke Government, that everyone should go to university and get a degree.

HANGING

They acted on advice from parents and teachers that a university education would provide a better income and a more secure life, but it hasn’t; all it has provided is another debt called Hex hanging round their neck.

Now the wealthy in their cohort are those who learnt a trade, the bakers and butchers and candle stick makers of the 21st Century.

The ones who now fly in and fly out from a mine site in the north and have a house, a boat and jet ski to come home to.

The question the Millennials are asking is why? What has happened to the Australia the older generations talk about?

Why is their generation different? Whose fault is it? Will they ever catch up or is it not worth trying?

There is one marked difference between the Millennials and previous generations that is rarely discussed and seldom recognised. The Millennials are the first generation to be born into the internet era.

They are not of the same generation and a world away from the Gen X leaders of all the political Parties in Australia today.

The internet was launched on January 1, 1983, and in 1998 – as the first of the Millennials became teenagers – Google launched. The digital age changed their world forever.

Unlike their parents and grandparents, Millennials and older Gen Z do not rely on newspapers, radio and TV for their information, political news, current affairs and entertainment.

They of the digital age are the ones who have grown up with and rely on (are never off) their smart watches, phones tablets and computers.

Now with the availability of artificial intelligence (AI) it seems all the Millennials and Gen Z have the world at their fingertips; yet, irrationally, in Australia today, many can’t afford a house to live in.

Now with AI, the world is changing at an alarming pace once again, and the political Party that ignores the changes does so at its own risk.

“If you’re not a liberal when you’re twenty-five, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re thirty-five, you have no brain.” This has been wrongly attributed to Winston Churchill and many others.

Maybe whoever said that first, was right? Look at this.

In June 2021 The Daily Declaration featured a report which was published by the University of Canberra’s News & Media Research Centre. The Centre surveyed tens of thousands of Australians for the study.

The Centre found that Australia’s digital news was skewed strongly to the Left; ABC TV was favoured by Left-wing viewers and people with Right-wing views tended to be stronger advocates for impartial, balanced and neutral views.

MEAN

The Daily Declaration informed us that 25 news brands were located along the Left-to-Right continuum according to the mean political views of their audience.

Only two of those brands skynews.com.au and heraldsun.com.au fell marginally to the Right of the “average” centrist Australian – the other 23 brands were found to be Left of centre.

That survey was borne out by the election result in 2022 and 2025 when the Labor lies were not challenged by the majority of the Australian media.

In the 2022 election, according to the Centre for Independent Studies, voters under 40 (Millennials and Gen Z) were instrumental in the Coalition’s defeat.

According to an Australian Election Study (AES), conducted shortly after the 2022 election, Millennials provided the Coalition with its lowest number of first preferences since they began voting in 2001 (22.9 per cent)

Among Millennials, the Coalition polled fewer primary votes than The Greens. With Gen Z, the voting pattern was the same at 23.1 per cent; a third of that generation (33 per cent!) voted for The Greens.

In the 2025 election the trend continued; Coalition support fell to 21 per cent among Millennials and to 27 per cent with Gen Z.

It’s largely accepted that whatever happens or is “trending” in the northern hemisphere and particularly in Britain and the US, will happen in Australia within one or two years.

We saw this with the graphic example of the Black Lives Matter movement. The death by a policeman, in public, of a black American who had a long criminal and drug record shocked the world.

Within days it seemed that the BLM was marching in Australia with the Aboriginal flag and demanding action over the vexed question from 1991 Royal Commission of Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

Then, from nowhere ANTIFA the anti-fascist movement from America suddenly showed up in Australia counter protesting the new and disturbing appearance of Right-wing rallies in our capital cities.

Then the world changed forever on October 7, 2023. Israel was attacked and its men, women and children were defiled, raped and slaughtered by Hamas. Hundreds were taken hostage, many never returned.

Yet, when Israel retaliated, they were the ones who were vilified and condemned by so many in the international (Left wing?) media and by governments, our own included.