Generation WHY you say!
I agree wholeheartedly, Generation X, has and is suffering from widespread eXploitation because of their apathy. Generation Y is about asking questions, and making a stand.
The recent events of a socially conscious band, KiLLTV, gatecrashing the final eviction of BIG Brother is a perfect case in point. This band has had enough of the eXploitation. (www.KiLLTV.com.au)
They have a sense of the future, and enough common sense to plan for their future.
In fact, one of the band members stood for State Parliament at 18, was elected Councillor at 23, and still remains so.
Bring on Generation Y, we need a change.

I am a "Generation Y-er", and I can confirm what the author says about people my age. I know all (yes, ALL!) my friends are intelligent and socially aware and would be interested in politics if were interested in them. They dream of a better world but don't see party politics as a way to acheive that. The Liberal party is for middle-aged business people, the Labor party is useless and why bother voting for a minor party? I beleive Australian politics should be about making the world a better place - making heaven on earth, starting with Australia. It seems politicians are just interested in following idiological dogma, which has more to do with crushing the other side and generally not rocking the boat too much than actually trying to create a glorious utopia.

A friend of mine is a journalism student who wrote a small article with a similar theme - young people feel excluded from the political process. One of the people she interviewed said that they feel politicians are focused only on people our parents' age, and one of the suggestions in the article was better civics education in schools. Another friend, a would be primary school teacher, said she was "disgusted" by the social studies lessons that she saw during her work experience time - the regular teacher didn't even know the name of the opposition leader.

If you want young people to be interested in politics, I reckon extensive civics/politics lessons would be a good place to start. My year 7 teacher had a wonderful idea that was really a lot of fun - she split the class up into 4 groups, each of which was the government of an imaginary country. We had trade, foreign affairs and everything. It was, as Thorpie says, "fully sick" ;-)

A little bit of advice form an oldie to all generation Y'ers:

If you're not a socialist at 20 you haven't got a heart.

If you're not a capitalist at 40 you haven't got a hesd.

The current generation is quite disengaged from politics I think because there are no charismatic politicians for them to look up too. Young people are generally very idealistic and can spot hypocrisy from a hundred paces, attributes likely to make them shun political leaders and their views.

As an X-er with a Y-daughter, I've seen perspectives from both sides. One thing I do know is Y-gen is waiting for someone to take them on - seriously. They are quick to spot a fake and will test your limits to see if you really care. My daughter feels that pollies have their own agenda and her opinions don't matter much to them. Working with Y-gen regularly in performing arts, I've found my own attitudes as a parent and person of influence affect the attitudes of the generation after me. Nevertheless, Y poses a challenge to us all not to take the freedom we have for granted (as reminded on VP Day) and to show them that some things are worth the effort - especially them. I believe the next generation can be our most valuable asset if we're willing to work with them.

Petty in todays'The Age shows the kind of decision making young people tune out on http://www.theage.com.au/cartoons/index.html .