Three in ten Generation Z (Gen-Z) Australians who did not register for the 2022 federal election said they either did not know they had to register to vote or did not know how to.
While compulsory voting in Australia was commonly viewed as a tool to improve democratic participation, research from Griffith University found almost half of Gen Z who did vote in the 2022 federal election said their main reason for doing so was to avoid being fined.
Griffith researchers conducted a nationwide survey with around 1,500 Gen-Z adults and provided one of the most complete pictures of Gen-Z voting engagement in a compulsory system to date.
School of Government and International Relations Research Fellow Dr Sofia Ammassari said the study aimed to discover why Gen Z chose to vote in the 2022 federal election, why some registered but did not vote, and why some did not register at all.
"In order to encourage more youth voting, it's important to understand what was driving Gen Z to vote," Dr. Ammassari said.
"Our research showed some Gen-Z youths were unaware of the basic requirements of voting, and since most non-registered respondents said they intended to vote in the next election, it appeared the barrier was a lack of knowledge rather than a deliberate choice not to vote.
"Though the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has made great strides over the past decade to increase the number of young people on the voting register, they still failed to reach some sections of the youth population."
School of Government and International Relations Professor Duncan McDonnell said the findings highlighted the value of compulsory voting with enforced penalties.
"Forty-seven per cent of Gen Z who voted in 2022 said their main motivation was not to get fined, and even though the fine was just $20, it obviously had an effect," Professor McDonnell said.
"At the same time, we shouldn't be too complacent about this because if your main motivation for voting was just to avoid a fine, that's not a great sign.
"Our survey showed many young people who voted were just as disillusioned with political parties as non-voters were."
School of Government and International Relations Associate Professor Ferran Martinez i Coma said although Gen Z shared lukewarm views about parties, there were some key differences between Gen-Z voters and non-voters.
"Gen-Z non-voters were more likely to be unemployed, less interested in politics and less enthusiastic about democracy," Associate Professor Martinez i Coma said.
"However, they were not necessarily disengaged from society at large and in fact, many non-voters were members of civil society organisations such as charities.
"For Gen Z, socio-economic factors impacted their electoral behaviour, which illustrated how access to material resources played an important role in fostering political participation.
"Compulsory voting may keep youth turnout high, but our research showed there were still a number of concerning issues, such as keeping young people informed and connected with the electoral process."
'Young Voters, Abstainers and Unregistered: Generation Z Turnout in a Compulsory System' was published in the leading international journal Political Studies.
