I’m a 21 yr old male. I was never taught anything about politics in school despite going all the way through year 12, and my Mum knows little because she doesn’t have to vote due to the year she moved here from New Zealand years before I was born, so doesn’t pay attention to the ins and outs of things in politics, and therefore didn’t teach me much throughout child-hood and teenage-hood about it.

I was born here in Australia in 2002, so I do have to vote. But I hate that every time a vote comes around, I am completely uninformed and have to vote based off of the miniscule amount of information I have which may not even be correct. If I try to use the internet to research about it, all I can find is mainstream media pushing towards one view or the other. I don’t appreciate being manipulated by media, and would rather find an unbiased source of information; so the very fact that I have difficulty finding unbiased information (or even just something approachable to a beginner) very much gate-keeps my ability to learn and be informed about what’s even going on in my country and develop an opinion that I’m comfortable with. So does anyone have any advice for me? I don’t even understand much of the basics of how the Australian government works, and what I read online about it, I find confusing, because it constantly uses political terminology it expects me to already know.

Edit: Thanks for the comments everyone, I appreciate the advice you’ve given me

  • Peddlephile@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    In addition to what others have suggested, I would say listen and read widely (podcasts, papers etc). It’s imperative to understand both sides of the argument so that you can form your own opinions on a single issue.

    When it comes to voting time, I usually do a postal vote so I can sit down with a cup of tea and read through some of the political party policies and go into the ‘they vote for you’ website to see if they’re just bluffing.

    It also helps to have a vision of what you want Australia to be like in the future. You can use this view to check if parties align with your view.