'We are the future': Youth leader challenges politicians to listen to rangatahi

"Think of the future generations. Think of us and what kind of country you want to leave us, because ultimately the decisions being made today will have the biggest long-term impact on us."

That's the message to politicians from an 18-year-old youth leader who has helped thousands of young people engage with the voting system in Aotearoa.

Lincoln Jones (Te Whakatōhea, Te Arawa, Rongowhakaata, Ngāi Tāmanuhiri, Ngāti Kahungungu), who founded youth-led initiative Democracy Lab, said young people care about politics but need to see their concerns reflected in the decisions made in Parliament.

"When it comes to us as rangatahi and being engaged within the political sphere, it's often said that young people don't care or that we're apathetic," he told RNZ.

"I don't think that's necessarily true. I think young people, we care a lot. Now more than ever, I think we care."

Jones, who is voting for the first time this election, said the challenge was turning that passion into action.

"What I think the disconnect is, is around how do we turn that care into action? How do we take all these feelings and the fire that we have inside of us and what is the output for that?"

"One of the most accessible outputs that actually does generate substantive change is to be able to vote or going out there and participating in voting."

He said that a strong voter turnout from young people could change how politicians approached youth and the policies affecting them.

"If all of us did show up at the ballot box, that could drastically change the way politics not only looks in Aotearoa, but how seriously our politicians take us as young people."

Jones is based in Tauranga Moana.

He established the kaupapa Democracy Lab after changes to electoral law prompted him to look at the number of young people who were not enrolled to vote.

To vote in this years election, eligible voters had to enrol by October 25.

He said the changes risked further disenfranchising young people, particularly Māori, Pasifika, multi-ethnic and migrant communities.

"A few months ago, there were around about 200,000 18 to 24-year-olds that weren't enrolled," he said.

Jones said that figure had dropped to about 130,000 by the Friday before enrolments closed, but he wanted to do more to close the gap.

"What can I do or what can I create to try and change that big gap between those unenrolled and those who are enrolled, and so that's where Democracy Lab was born."

Since the end of July, the initiative had visited more than 64 schools across the North and South Island, reaching more than 12,000 rangatahi - mostly year 13 students.

Jones said about 83 percent of the young people reached had either enrolled, updated their details or were already enrolled.

Over 8600 students had also filled out physical enrolment forms, which Democracy Lab delivered to the Electoral Commission.

That response showed the value of explaining politics in a way that connected with young people's everyday lives, he said.

"The funny thing is that young people care about the same things that every other New Zealander cares about.

"They care about how much it costs to fill up their tank in their car, they care about how affordable it is to be able to eventually buy a home or to rent, they care about the cost of food at the checkout, they care about how affordable it is or what they get paid at that job they want."

Jones said issues such as NCEA, university fees, apprenticeships, wages, transport and access to jobs were all shaped by political decisions. Making those connections, he said, helped rangatahi understand how politics affected them long before they entered a polling booth.

"You care about the things that affect you right now, so let's go and use ... this fire that you have inside of you to do something about it and to vote."

Jones said politicians also have a responsibility to show young people that their participation mattered.

"There is still a huge disconnect in terms of young people looking at all the options and going, 'Okay, I can see my voice being a part of these conversations'," he said.

"And I don't mean implementing our voice in a tokenistic way, I mean authentically listening to the voices of young people up and down this country and what they really care about."

Genuine engagement, he said, could help more young people see voting as a way to influence the issues they cared about.

"If we keep on with the status quo and we're not engaging with rangatahi where they are, then I see these numbers (of enrolments) only getting worse," he said.

Jones pointed to the youth-led campaigns working across the country to get people enrolled, saying much of that work was being driven by young people trying to help their peers participate.

His question was what would happen if those campaigns did not exist.

"If we continue to not put young people's voices at the centre of our decision-making or actually thinking of them as important stakeholders, we're going to live in a world where actually young people, that kind of fire that we see within young people to make change, I think it will eventually die out.

"It sounds really bleak, but I think that is why it is so important that we are listening to rangatahi because we are the future."

Jones wanted politicians to consider the country they are creating for future generations.

"My wero to our politicians is to have young people at the front of your mind."

Advance voting is underway, with election day on 7 November.