Train takes, diss tracks and TikTok clips: politicians pull out the stops to win over gen Z voters

The Guardian

18-04-2025

The 2025 federal election marks an important time for voters born in the internet age, as gen Z and millennial voters significantly outnumber baby boomers heading to the polls.
And what better way for politicians to connect with the youth than through TikTok – right?
While the Greens might have captured the zeitgeist with their recent Brat-themed DJ set, an analysis by marketing company Fabulate found Anthony Albanese is actually leading in engagement on TikTok.
The analysis found the prime minister's most popular video on the platform, a pretty sanitised clip spruiking Medicare, had more than 400,000 views. Meanwhile, Peter Dutton's top rating video was a sombre slideshow on his policies with more than 130,000 views. Adam Bandt's top video was on legalising cannabis, raking in more than 90,000 views.
We've already seen a number of political diss tracks, as well as AI action figure memes, as political parties fight for young eyeballs online – so who knows what else they might have up their sleeves.
Fortunately for young Australians, there's still yet to be a viral dance routine from leaders. For now.
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While we're still on 'trying to make politics fetch for anyone under 45', the independent candidate for Bradfield has taken a bold step.
Channelling Kareem Rahma's popular Subway Takes series, Nicolette Boele is launching her own – T1 Takes.
In a preview video on Instagram this week, the teal candidate asks commuters riding on Sydney's north shore train line for their takes. Like the original series, it's low budget, with interviewees using their Opal cards as microphones.
One woman quips: 'If men were the ones staying at home, we would have had universal childcare 20 years ago.'
'Your generation kind of screwed us over,' a (presumably) gen Z punter says.
We can't wait for more takes.
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Who says life after politics is dull? Probably not former Coalition MPs Julian Simmonds and Jason Falinski, who are exacting revenge on the pesky challengers who took their seats in the 2022 election.
Falinski, the former Mackellar member, and Simmonds, the former Brisbane MP, have been getting busy putting out ads for their anti-super-tax group, Australians for Prosperity.
The 'grassroots' group has spent nearly $113,000 in the three months to 13 April across 182 ads, according to Meta's ad library. Most of those ads target teal candidates, including Sophie Scamps, who unseated Falinski last election, as well as featuring street interviews.
One ad targeting the Wentworth MP, Zali Steggall, resembled a product recall notice, with supposed 'defects' including 'increases costs'.
When they're not targeting the teals or the Greens, the group's main gripe is with Labor's proposal to double the tax rate for superannuation accounts of more than $3m.
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Like almost everyone living in Australia, you've probably seen or heard an ad from Clive Palmer and his Trumpet of Patriots party. This is because the bulk of his digital ad spending since the start of the campaign – at least $1.4m so far according to Meta and Google data aggregated by Populares' political AdTracker – has targeted the entirety of Australia.
The only significant spend outside the national spree has been on several YouTube ads targeting the seat of Hunter, near Newcastle, and surrounding electorates. One ad takes aim at the major parties' support for a net zero target and claims that the major parties want to close down the coal industry in the Hunter Valley.
The Trumpet's focus on the Hunter is no doubt due to the Trumpet of Patriots' candidate in the area, Suellen Wrightson, being the party's 'lower house party leader' and proposed next prime minister. Sound familiar?
We've been tracking everywhere the leaders have been since the start of the campaign, and now that we've reached the midway point, we can reveal the locations each leader has visited the most.
In this map (using the same modified cartogram design we use for election results so smaller seats are more visible) you can see where they've been, and how many times.
Not surprisingly, both leaders have been spending plenty of time in marginal electorates – marginal seats have comprised 50% of Albanese's visits and 57% of Dutton's so far.
According to the Australian Electoral Commission, 51 of Australia's 150 federal electorates are considered marginal in 2025 (held with a margin of 6% or less).
Election campaigns are full of oopsies moments and it's our privilege to bring them to you. One eagle-eyed X user spotted a typically divisive post by Facebook page 'Election News', run by rightwing activist group Advance Australia, that seems to have gone astray.
The post contained a link to a YouTube video by Labor-aligned YouTuber FriendlyJordies, AKA Jordan Shanks, with the hyperbolic title (and matching comically large thumbnail) 'Labor is too WOKE'. In the video, posted after the US election in November, Shanks expressed concern the party was risking the same fate as the Democrats by focusing on 'elitist' and 'censorious' policies.
But in a cheeky move, Shanks has since changed the video's title, thumbnail and caption to 'The Liberals WILL Privatise Medicare'. 'Now Liberal party funds are going towards a MediScare campaign', he said in a follow-up video detailing the move. 'Thanks again for my only paid sponsorship for the election, Libs.'