Executive Summary: Youth in Focus: Navigating wellbeing in a changing world

This Executive Summary is a printable summary of the key findings and recommendations from the BCEC report, Youth in Focus: Navigating wellbeing in a changing world, which provides a comprehensive analysis of the priorities and perspectives of young Australians, offering key insights to shape future policy development.

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The eleventh report in the BCEC Focus on the States series, this report draws on insights from young Australians aged 14 to 25, highlighting their biggest challenges and what they want to see change. While cost of living, education and mental health were identified as key concerns, the report also finds young people are leading the way in tackling social issues, such as calling out discrimination, racism and gender bias.

The report shows cost of living pressures have skyrocketed to become the most pressing issue for young Australians, with one third citing it as a personal concern and more than half (56 per cent) listing it as one of the biggest challenges facing the country.

The report also shines a light on growing frustration with Australia’s higher education system, particularly with policies such as the current HECS-HELP structure and the Job-ready Graduates Package which findings suggest are unfairly burdening young Australians.

Despite a slight decline in climate change ranking as a top priority, the report finds young Australians remain committed to environmental action. Three-quarters still want environmental protection prioritised over economic growth and 86 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds see climate change as a key voting issue.

However, the report also highlights young Australians’ growing disengagement from politics, with just one in eight expressing trust in the political process.