“The Boomers Have Failed Us:” a Gen Z Political Party Just Launched in Australia
+ And they want influencers on the job...
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A Gen Z political party just launched in Australia
Google’s top trending searches of 2023
Bel and I wrapped the year in pop culture in our last unhinged episode of Culture Vulture!!
A weekend reading list xx
A Gen Z political party just launched in Australia
There’s a new political party brewing in Australia, and it’s hoping to get shit done with an army of influencers.
The shit they want to get done, you ask? Free university, no income tax for under 25s, net zero and nuclear power, oh, and drug decriminalisation. Here’s what their website says:
“Australia is sleepwalking toward climate catastrophe.
Both the Labor and the Liberal Party have fundamentally failed us, and our planet –
They protect the interests of the Boomers.
The Fossils in government must go. Parliament needs to be representative.
Gen Z Influencers will be standing for parliament.
We are here to fix this broken system – before it’s too late.”
I first stumbled across the new party on Twitter, and I honestly couldn’t figure out whether it was a parody or not. After a quick Google I found this article, with the party’s founder who says “we are absolutely not a joke.”
Here are some more findings from that interview:
First, the founder - Thomas Rex Dolan - is only 19, and ran for the Victorian lower house for the Democratic Labour Party in 2022.
It’s kinda nepo baby vibes:
Thomas claims he left the party following a disagreement with its executive (his father, who is the president) over the party’s stance on climate change and other policies. Some of those policies are completely contradictory to those of the Gen Z Party, including wanting to “end all ‘acknowledgement of country’ recitations by government employees”, “end unfair sporting competition by transgender athletes”, “end the cultural Marxists personal pronoun war,” and “oppose the racist ‘Voice to Parliament’”.
He elaborates:
My father’s vaguely in politics. He joined the DLP, which is this crazy Christian party and he ended up getting to the top and changing it from its hard right Catholic stance into a more progressive, still family-centric political party. He said, ‘Thomas, we need to run paper candidates, can you run?’ I was like ‘I guess, I’m the youngest Australian to run’. But I said [I’d do it] only if we can reform. We have this new world party and you can really make a difference here. But [there was] no change. The constituency is old boomers, this is fucking ridiculous. So I had quite a barney with my dad about that. He said, ‘If you really care that much about this then start your own party.’
So I created the Gen Z Party and we’ve just gone viral. Piers Morgan wants to interview us and Sky News absolutely hates us.
Next, the influencer thing.
One of their strategies is to get influencers into Parliament which I have very conflicting feelings about.
This is from their ‘Influencer’ page on their website:
“Calling All Influencers
If you have more than 10,000 followers on TikTok or Instagram, you will be eligible to stand for parliament.
Should we win, you will be able to represent your followers in parliament – and earn between $159,122 and $211,250 each year.”
I totally understand this idea in terms of rallying Gen Z/ getting us to vote/ to care/ to speak up - I mean it’s definitely a strategy (whether it’s a good one or not is arguable.). BUT for everyone begging influencers to ‘use their platforms’ this would show us what would happen if they actually did. If our politicians were made up of people who had formed their perspectives from an infographic or gotten famous by doing ‘get ready with me’s’ and were then forced to pivot their content into talking about things they aren’t educated on. In that respect, it would be a good social experiment.
OR it could actually be really interesting. What if the influencers acted more as vehicles for their followers’ beliefs?? I mean they have a huge ability to poll their audiences and find out what they really care about, and the MOST direct access to the peopel they’d be ‘representing’ in history. I’m intrigued as to how this could go if it was done right.
This is Thomas’s response to being asked if influencers would misrepresent Gen Z:
Okay, what do you think the prime occupation of ministers of parliament are before they enter politics? They’re lawyers. What’s the average age of MPs when they first enter parliament? Is it 20? No, it’s 44. The current politicians just aren’t representative [of Gen Z]. So what if Gen Z influencers start accepting money from lobby groups like BP like the Liberals do? Well they’re influencers so they have a following and they’ll be cancelled for it. Gen Z influencers, more than lawyers or former bankers, are motivated by self-interest and actually representing their demographic.
Anyway, I’ll shut up about this now - but is this not fascinating? Politics needs a shake-up, and it needs young poeple to ACTUALLY VOTE, and even if this isn’t the way, isn’t it just interesting to see someone doing something different???
Read the interview Thomas did with Junkee, here!
Google’s top trending searches of 2023
I mentioned last week that I’m getting a TONNE of emails about end of year wraps/ round-ups, and one that snuck in after I’d sent that newsy was Google’s wrap up!!!
Some highlights from our top trending searches:
Lazy Girl …
A very relatable search prompt imo.
Lazy girl jobs
Lazy girl workout
Lazy girl yoga
Lazy girl meals
Lazy girl lunch
Lazy girl diet
Lazy girl peach cobbler recipe
Lazy girl ab workout
Lazy girl haircuts
Lazy girl wall pilates
Are … in style?
Not to be a hater but I despise the idea of ‘in style…’ if you like it, don’t Google it, WEAR IT 💅
Cargo shorts
Jean jackets
Headbands
Tall boots
Jumpsuits
Pleated pants
Denim skirts
Scarves
Loafers
Ballet flats
Why is/are … so expensive
If this ain’t 2023
Why are eggs so expensive?
Why are Taylor Swift tickets so expensive?
Why is Sriracha so expensive?
Why are grapes so expensive?
Why are blueberries so expensive?
Why is soda so expensive?
Why is Diablo IV so expensive?
Why is lettuce so expensive?
Why are Stanley Cups so expensive?
Why are concert tickets so expensive?
Astrology Compatibility
Can someone tell me who a Libra is compatible with?
Taurus and sagittarius
Pisces and aquarius
Virgo and capricorn
Pisces and leo
Pisces and virgo
Virgo and sagittarius
Cancer and taurus
Taurus and virgo
Pisces and capricorn
Pisces and sagittarius
What does … mean
A search prompt not just reserved for the Dads of the world, I too have been guilty of searching this many a time.
Indicted
Gyatt (I had to FaceTime my little brother to ask about this)
Rizz
Pookie
Imploded
WYLL
Critical condition
RCS message
Censure
Bonita
Slang:
Rizz
Gyatt
It's giving
Cringe
No printer (???????)
Stan
Mid
Slay
Drip
Cap
It’s giving …
As per my findings above, it’s giving cringe, no cap.
It's giving fashion
It's giving mother
It's giving raquel
It's giving broke boi
It's giving vampires
It's giving sinister babe (???)
It's giving movement
It's giving hild
It's giving body
It's giving Ohio (???)
Books like …
Including this one for our Bookies 🫶
Fourth Wing - Rebecca Yarros
Red, White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston
Daisy Jones & the Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid
Hunting Adeline - H. D. Carlton
Icebreaker - Hannah Grace
The Inheritance Games - Jennifer Lynn Barnes
The Last of Us
Atomic Habits - James Clear
Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
Every Summer After - Carley Fortune
Bel and I wrapped the year in pop culture in our last unhinged episode of Culture Vulture!!
From the biggest moments, to the trends we loved (and hated the most), the break ups, the new couple debuts, and the biggest winners and losers in pop culture this year - you won't want to miss this ep!!
A weekend reading list xx
TikTok car confessionals are the new YouTube bedroom vlogs (TechCrunch)
Alex Batty: Teen from Oldham missing for six years found in France (BBC)
Inside the Troll Army Waging Trump’s Online Campaign (NY Times)
Australian woman charged with stealing van carrying 10,000 doughnuts (Yahoo)
One good TikTok therapist (Embedded)
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not me spelling conflicting 'conflucting' i can't be trusted
I feel like this Gen Z political party can either be really good or really bad, no in between.
I want to believe they can do it and fix everything, but I also feel like there are a lot of stuff that we don’t really understand yet about how it all works and that they could just break the whole system. 🧐Psychological and genereal knowledge tests are highly required