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Speaker 1: Now it turns out millennials are weird. Okay. Normally, what

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Speaker 1: happens in all generations is that as people get older,

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Speaker 1: they get more conservative, but millennials are doing the opposite.

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Speaker 1: It appears that as millennials get old, are they're getting

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Speaker 1: more liberal. This is according to the latest Australian Elections Study.

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Speaker 1: Doctor Sarah Cameron of Griffith University was a chief investigator

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Speaker 1: on the study and with us. Now, hey, Sarah, hi, Heather,

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Speaker 1: how are you measuring this? How are you measuring the

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Speaker 1: fact that millennials are getting more liberal?

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Speaker 2: So the Australian Elections Study is a representative national survey

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Speaker 2: of voters in Australia that has been fielded after every

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Speaker 2: single federal election from nineteen eighty seven through to twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty five.

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Speaker 1: So what that.

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Speaker 2: Enables us to do is to look at the voting

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Speaker 2: behavior of different generations over that period of time. Now

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Speaker 2: we can see for an older generation, like baby boomers,

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Speaker 2: they followed the pattern you described, whereby they started a

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Speaker 2: bit further to the left and then they became more

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Speaker 2: conservative as they got older. With millennials, this is a

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Speaker 2: group that started further to the left and now they're

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Speaker 2: not the youngest group of voters anymore. That's been taken

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Speaker 2: by Generation Z. Millennials are now in their thirties and

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Speaker 2: even into their mid forties. And what we're seeing is

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Speaker 2: that this group isn't becoming more conservative as they get older.

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Speaker 2: They've actually been shifting to the left, which is shown

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Speaker 2: by them voting more for Labor and the Greens while

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Speaker 2: the proportion voting for the liberal national coalitions.

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Speaker 1: But how long have millennials been voting, well.

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Speaker 2: Since about the turn of the millennium. And I get

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Speaker 2: to the turn of the millennium, you had the yeah, ok,

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Speaker 2: that's a.

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Speaker 1: Few elections, isn't it. And are you telling me that

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Speaker 1: they started lift the millennials and name moving even further

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Speaker 1: left and.

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Speaker 2: They started a bit more balanced, and then they've been

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Speaker 2: moving left. Generation Z they've started further to the left

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Speaker 2: of any generation, even more so than millennials. So we're

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Speaker 2: seeing a pattern whereby well, younger generations are further to

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Speaker 2: the left, but also they're not showing the pattern of

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Speaker 2: shifting to the right as they get older.

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Speaker 1: Bunch of things I got to ask you, Sarah, So

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Speaker 1: first of all, did you only study this in Australia?

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Speaker 1: Or was it worldwide?

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Speaker 2: So this particular study is in Australia, but many others run.

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Speaker 1: Is it possible, Is it possible that this is more

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Speaker 1: of a reflection of your own politics where your right

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Speaker 1: wing parties frankly suck.

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Speaker 2: Well, Uh, we do have data on how much people

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Speaker 2: like the political parties over time, and so we can

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Speaker 2: see whether indeed the parties are becoming worse over time.

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Speaker 1: And you can say you don't know if you don't

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Speaker 1: know in fact to that and I think it might

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Speaker 1: be a specific Australia problems. You have a real problem

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Speaker 1: with your writing parties. What about the other thing that

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Speaker 1: millennials are also slightly odd in terms of like the

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Speaker 1: generations that have come before them, in that there are

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Speaker 1: the younger millennials will not yet have settled down, border house,

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Speaker 1: really late, we're really late to get to things right,

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Speaker 1: So haven't yet bought a house, haven't yet had children.

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Speaker 1: Those are things that tend tow to force you to

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Speaker 1: become more conservative. Could that be part of it?

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Speaker 2: Yes, yes, you're spot on in terms of that being

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Speaker 2: part of it, and in terms of whether this is

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Speaker 2: something that's exceptional to Australia or not. This is not

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Speaker 2: just an Australian phenomenon, in the sense that some of

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Speaker 2: the old cleavages that drove voter behavior, like class, are

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Speaker 2: having less and less of an impact over time. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 2: the new big cleavages which are shaping voter behavior generation,

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Speaker 2: gender and also education. Now, So to look at gender,

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Speaker 2: can I just stop.

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Speaker 1: You on the education though? Is that's fascinating? I have

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Speaker 1: got I cannot tell you how many tics are coming

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Speaker 1: in right now saying things like this. Hither it's indoctrinated

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Speaker 1: schools and universities. Hither it is unions who are influencing

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Speaker 1: the teachers. Is that a possibility, it's what's going on

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Speaker 1: at school.

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Speaker 2: So we do see an element whereby university education is

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Speaker 2: associated with a greater likelihood of voting for parties on

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Speaker 2: the left. Now, that wasn't always the case. So that's

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Speaker 2: a newer cleavage that's emerging together with generational change. And

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Speaker 2: the other one which has really emerged is gender differences

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Speaker 2: in voter behavior. It used to be that women were

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Speaker 2: slightly further right and men were slightly further left. Over time,

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Speaker 2: that gender gap it's reversed, but now women have for

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Speaker 2: the left, man a further to the right, but also

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Speaker 2: any gender gaps in the past were very small, whereas

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Speaker 2: over the past ten years quite a big gender gap

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Speaker 2: has emerged.

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Speaker 1: Sarah, thank you for talking us through. And I just

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Speaker 1: find that absolutely fascinating. That's doctor Sarah Cameron, who's a

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Speaker 1: political scientist at Griffith University. Millennials have always been a

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Speaker 1: bit strange, haven't they.

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