What Matters to Young Australians? Exploring Young People's Perspectives from 2010 -2018

At a time where Australian democracy is under significant pressure, it is more important than ever to understand young people's views on social and political issues" and consider what they mean for governance and public policy. Since 2004, the Whitlam Institute within Western Sydney University has run a writing competition for Australian students posing the question What Matters? Since it began, more than 30,000 entries have been received. The Whitlam Institute has commissioned the authors to analyse writing submitted between 2010" 2018. The aim of this work is to understand what young people are concerned with, how they conceptualise different issues, if and how those issues and concerns are changing over time, and what they reveal about the contemporary politics of young people.