Nate Wilbourne, International Youth + Nature Advocate 21.10.26

The world is pretty cooked right now. Owning a house lowkey feels like it’ll never happen, my rent costs half a liver, why is a vodka redbull $15, the climate isn’t getting any cooler, and plenty of young people are trying to figure out what their futures will even look like. Meanwhile, we’re told we’re the generation that will change everything. But how are we supposed to shape the future if we don’t get a say in the decisions shaping it?

And honestly, I get why politics can feel so out of reach. It can be overwhelming, hella confusing, insanely boring and, at times, just frustrating. Maybe you don’t feel represented by any political party, or you’re just sick of watching politicians argue while you have zero clue what they’re on about.

Meanwhile, they don’t really care about the issues that matter to young people. Maybe you’ve got other things to worry about - uni, work, money, relationships, locking in, and trying to figure out your life. Or maybe you just simply dgaf about politics. Fair enough. But politics does gaf about you.

I’m literally only 18, and through my work (tldr I travel the world speaking at conferences fighting for the rights of young people and our planet, matter of fact the New York Times flew me to Athens last month lol), I spend a lot of time thinking about how we give young people a greater say in the decisions shaping our world. I’ve used my own social media accounts (shoutout @natewilbourne) to help young people participate in the issues affecting their communities, and I now work on making the case for New Zealand to take future generations more seriously.

One thing I’ve learnt is that young people care. We care about our communities, the cost of living, the job market, climate change, inequality and what kind of world we’re going to live in. Some of us organise protests, others will chat about how crap the world is at pres. The problem isn’t that we have nothing to say. It’s that we don’t always feel like anyone is listening.

But whether we’re paying attention or not, the decisions being made today will shape the rest of our lives. They’ll influence whether we can buy a house, how hot a kiwi summer will be, how much debt you’re going to be in after uni, and the opportunities available to us. These aren’t distant problems for some future version of ourselves to deal with. They’re happening right now, and our generation will live with the consequences long after many of today’s politicians have left office.

I hope you know that there’s an election coming up, and if you’re 18 or older by the 7th of November, you can vote, and you MUST vote! This is the best chance you have which only comes around every 3 years to literally help shape your own future. Enrol to vote at vote.nz - it deadass takes two minutes. PLEASE DO IT BY SUNDAY!! You must enrol to vote by 25th October, but you have until 7th November to vote, so there’s still time to figure out who deserves your vote.

And if you don’t know much about politics or have no idea who to vote for, don’t stress, you’re def not alone. You don’t need to have it all figured out right now. Tools like WhichParty.nz and TVNZ Vote Compass can help you understand which parties you align with the most (aka who you should vote for).

Of course, voting alone won’t fix everything. We still need politicians who listen to young people and a political system that thinks beyond the next election. But we can’t expect to have a say in our future if we don’t take the opportunities we have to shape it.

The world might feel pretty cooked, and it’s easy to feel powerless. But the decisions being made today will affect us for decades. The best is yet to come, but we deserve a say in what that future looks like. Please enrol to vote, and more importantly, please vote!