Recent polling shows that the majority of younger voters intend to vote for the parties on the “left” (ALP and Greens) whereas the majority of older voters intend to vote for the parties on the “right” (Liberals and Nationals). On a two party preferred basis this difference in voting intention is greatest between the youngest (18-24) and oldest (65+) age groups. This polling indicates that if the Coalition wins the election it will be the older generations that disproportionately hand them the victory.
One of the few big policy differences between the parties is their response to climate change. Climate change is the biggest global health threat to the young people of today and tomorrow.
The Coalition’s Direct Action plan is a dud. As Malcolm Turnbull put it – the “Liberal Party is currently led by people whose conviction on climate change is that it is "crap” and you don’t need to do anything about it. Any policy that is announced will simply be a con, an environmental figleaf to cover a determination to do nothing.“
Even though you wouldn’t know it from the media coverage, the Direct Action plan has been criticised by experts ever since it was announced with 85% of economists saying that it is not sound economic policy and few believing it will actually work.
A recent report found that there is a black hole of between 4 and 15 billion dollars in the funding for the Coalition’s climate policy. Given that Tony Abbott and Greg Hunt are sticking to their pledge that funding for the Direct Action policy won’t be increased it is clear that the Coalition have no real intention of meeting the emission reduction targets they have promised.
An increasing number of separate analyses have found that the Green’s climate change policies are better than Labor’s which are better than the Coalition’s.
We cannot afford to go backwards on climate action. There is massive work to do. National and international emission reduction targets must be dramatically increased to prevent dangerous climate change.
If, for whatever reason(s), the majority of people in the older generations hand the election to the Coalition they will further endanger the health and wellbeing of the younger generations of today as well as the children of tomorrow.