Read on Twitter
There’s a lot going on here beyond the need to have an ALP which better represents Australia. 1. Engaging with the ~working class~ because you’re concerned about loosing votes, and only engaging them when you notice a dip, is very problematic https://twitter.com/michaelkoziol/status/1327752136453603328
2. The structures of Young Labor will need to change if they want more working class people. Regularly time commitments such as conferences, volunteering ect are not inclusive to working class people because they have jobs, and they aren’t Uni students who have lots of free time
Myself, and a lot of my peers struggled to engage with any sort of regular extra curricular activities because if work commitments. The type of commitment the young politics parties ask for in their higher ranks is too much for someone in a vocation
3. I suspect for a lot of young people, it’s the elitism of these groups that turns them off joining. Quotas do not solve toxic workplace environments. We’ve seen that with women in the workforce.
The ALP will need to work on fixing the issues within YL if if wants more working class people to join. There is a class issue within the ALP, but it needs to do more than just placing working class people in the party
4. Don’t use young working class people the systematic, entrenched issues within the ALP. If you want more support from the working class, then you need better policies and better representation at the national level
It shouldn’t be the responsibility of the young people to ensure working class votes. It should be the responsibility of the politicians
Young Labor follow what happens in the main party (corruption, treatment of women and poc). If Labor want to be more inclusive of classes, they need to start at the top. Not the bottom.
I absolutely think that we should have more working class people involved in the ALP & pol more broadly. There is a class crisis in auspol at every level. I don’t think this is the way to go about it, as it ignores main reasons why the ALP is loosing its working class supporters
A lack of votes isn’t the fault of disengaged young working class people. It’s the fault of bad policy.
Dyrenfurth said that the only people who would oppose this are middle class snobs. Of which I am not haha. I am the first in family to finish high school & attend university. Majority of my family members are in trades, & my parents don’t own the house they live in/I grew up in
I come from a long family history of ALP voters. But in the last couple of years they’ve all questioned their support of the party. And it has absolutely nothing to do with YL and everything to do with the National party. They probably don’t even know Young Labor exists
