Parties do best to pin down youth vote

September 17 is not just election day. It is also the 18th birthday of Tim Overton, plumber's apprentice.

He has enrolled, but does not know if he can be faffed voting.

He makes a bolt for it whenever politics comes up at the family dinner table.

"I just walk away when all that stuff is happening. I haven't read up on this, or listened to it or watched any of it on television so I don't know much about it. It's just not relevant to me. When I'm actually a plumber it might be."

Therein lies the trouble for the political parties. There are about 640,000 voters under 30 whose ticks any party would covet. But those ticks are hard to attract.

By and large, the big-ticket policy issues are not on the youth radar. They are too young to care much about health, or about education - apart from the student loans issue. They would benefit from tax cuts, but most are still on low salaries, so National has not exactly promised them a golden egg.

Add the fact that many of them just don't know about politics, and care even less, and the under-30s become slippery customers to get hold of.

The head of Auckland University's political studies department, Jack Vowles, says there are no extensive studies on what specifically affects young voters.

He suspects that beyond the obvious issues - student loans and buying a first home - their worries are as diverse as they are for any other age group.

"They tend to be more environmentally conscious and more nationalistic," he says. "They are more liberal in terms of social attitudes so are less concerned with moral issues being raised by social conservatives, such as Destiny."

This year, the student loans issue has shown young people are no less susceptible to the "show me the money" mentality than older citizens.

Inland Revenue figures show that two out of three of the nearly 450,000 people with student loans are under 30.

Reflecting that figure, the latest Herald-DigiPoll survey showed that more than 50 per cent of voters aged 18 to 24 support Labour.

Among them is Christchurch telesales consultant Kylie Andrew, 26.

"I had a conversation with Dad recently. He said, 'Well you get tax cuts with National'. I said, '$10 a week won't get me far'. It wouldn't come anywhere near hitting off the interest payments.

"So it's the student loan. If I don't get that fixed up now, it will be more of an issue for the next part of my life."

Take student loans out of the equation and there are wide differences in opinion on what issues matter.

The environment is a perennial favourite; the Greens poll about twice as well among those aged 18 to 24 as any other group.

But not all young people feel the same way.

Paul Koppens, 25, is a drainage contractor who also leases a small beef farm in Karaka, south of Auckland.

He thinks the Greens are a pack of "wombles who can't logically justify their airy-fairy theories".

At the Fieldays this year he bailed up the Greens' representative, told him where he could put his Kyoto Protocol and added that if the Government was serious about climate change, "instead of driving round in big grunty Ford Fairlanes they would get hybrid cars".

He's voting National, but not because of tax cuts.

He's worried about public access to farm land. He also has his eye on the welfare system and treaty settlements.

"To me, being a young fella, those are the big issues."

Varsha Singh, of youth polling website 18Tracker, said some results of their surveys surprised them. They revealed positions on the war in Iraq, the "one nation" policies based on need, not race, tax cuts, buying a first home and support for young families.

"Overall, we young working voters actually possess a 'conservatism' that politicians may find surprising. Our values, desires and vision for the future are not that incongruent to those of older voters. It's not all sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll."

The presidents of Labour and National's youth arms agree on the main issues - student loans, and buying a home. But - predictably - they disagree when it comes to identifying the more marginal issues.

Young Labour president Conor Roberts lists the war in Iraq, New Zealand music and film, the environment and the nuclear-free law.

"When we talk to people about what is relevant to them, it is just different to what comes through on the 6pm news or in the newspapers. It's different to things like tax or Government spending."

Young Nats president Jamie Simpson points to tax, and adds in security and defence, a resurgence in Anzac pride among the young, and policies for workers with family to support and bills to pay.

"A lot of people also jump up and down about not being treated the same, the Treaty of Waitangi aspect, and what differences in treatment there are for Maori and non-Maori."

Differences of opinion are also stark for Kylie Andrew and her colleague Jason Field, 29, at a courier company in Christchurch.

Ms Andrew is a liberal. Mr Field hates unions, loved the Employment Contracts Act and thinks the economic reforms of the late 1980s were wonderful.

Ms Andrew worries about the morals backlash.

"I suppose they're talking about marriage and civil unions, which I'm pretty much for. It doesn't hurt me and I'm not afraid of those things so I worry when people make it sound wrong."

Mr Field worries that the National Party has backed away from the right. He liked Don Brash's Orewa speeches, but doesn't think the tax cuts are enough, and plans to vote Labour in protest.

What about the pulling power of the politicians?

Kylie Andrew: "I always voted Labour because I like Helen Clark, and having a lady in power."

Paul Koppens feels much the same way about Don Brash.

"I'm erring on the side of National purely because Don Brash is not a politician, John Key is not a politician. They have made their own money, made their way out there in the real world. They don't need to do this. They want to do it."

A bigger problem for all parties is that many young voters see politics as irrelevant to them.

An Electoral Commission survey in June revealed only a third of people aged 18 to 24 said they would vote and knew who it would be for. Twenty per cent said they had not even thought about the issue.

By August 17, 80 per cent of people 18 to 24 had enrolled, compared with the national enrolment rate of 94 per cent. This leaves about 83,000 unenrolled voters in that age group.

641,300 - Estimated number of eligible voters aged under 30

80% - Proportion of eligible 18 to 24-years-olds enrolled to vote

94% - Proportion of all eligible voters who are enrolled

51% - Proportion of 18 to 24-year-olds who support Labour

36% - Proportion who support National

Source: Elections NZ Herald-DigiPoll survey