I gasped at the moment it was announced there had been a transfer of power to a new generation. Following Gladys Berejiklian's resignation from the NSW premiership, 39-year-old Dominic Perrottet became the first Millennial to assume a statewide leadership position.
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This was a momentous event for young people in Australia. There is a shocking lack of youth representation in the upper echelons of political power - a problem that deepens the fault line between politicians and young people. Young role models could well help mend the distrustful relationship.
But is the ultra-religious "family guy", Dominic Perrottet, a potential youth icon?
Young Australians may not, in fact, be fans of the new Premier. In fact, there are a number of things about Perrottet that make us anxious.
For starters, he's an old-school conservative on social issues. As a devout Catholic, he opposed the legalisation of same-sex marriage, ruled out changes to abortion laws, and fervently criticised "throwing money" at welfare on the grounds it drives up divorce rates and depresses fertility rates.
Surely, as he asserts, "diversity should be celebrated" and politicians should be judged based on their job performance rather than "on some religious element". But, what's unnerving is that Perrottet represents, as writer and minister Stephanie Dowrick put it, "the most extreme end of a rigidly male-dominated institutional church".
More troubling is his support for a racist, sexist bigot: in 2016, he described Donald Trump's US presidential win as "a victory for people who have been taken for granted by the elites".
Young women may not fancy Perrotett's socially regressive views, either. The fact that the new Premier has previously voted against the decriminalisation of abortion in NSW is a harbinger of his future policies on reproductive rights.
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Perrotett's stance on the climate crisis - the single issue that politically mobilises most of Australia's youth - is anything but clear. In a 2015 speech, Perrottet mocked the left's "almost religious devotion" to climate change, and condemned the former Labor government's spending on the issue as a "a gratuitous waste" of taxpayers' money.
In a 2016 social media post, he argued that questioning man-made climate change does not make one a sceptic. Even two years ago, he refused to back away from his comments, but inconsistently assured that he accepted the science of climate change and belongs to a government which is working to cut the state's emissions in half this decade.
On the other hand, Perrottet promises to work towards generational equity, acknowledging Millennials have not had similar opportunities to those of preceding generations. He wants to provide young people with opportunities to achieve more than their parents through job creation and first home buyer support packages.
Still, despite his grand economic plans, scores of young people have expressed negative sentiments about the new Premier on social media, with anti-Perrottet videos soaring up to 5 million views on TikTok alone.
Young people - who tend to be more inclusive, socially progressive and tolerant - will be watching closely to see whether Perrotett's flying of the Millennial flag is mere descriptive representation - sharing an age group - rather than substantive representation - actually focusing on the issues important to young people.
In a nutshell, will he just stand for us, or will he act for us?
He has 18 months before the next election to make his choice.
- Intifar Chowdhury is a PhD candidate at the Australian National University's School of Politics & International Relations.