14/08/2026
The kids are alright…
Almost half of Australians have at least one parent born overseas. Nearly one in four speaks a language other than English at home. In NSW public schools, that rises to 40% of students and their families.
So when high school and university students across Australia walk out of class to protest Pauline Hanson and One Nation, they are not confused, manipulated or “indoctrinated.”
They know exactly who they are standing beside.
They are standing beside their classmates. Their friends. Their parents and grandparents. Migrant kids. First Nations kids. Q***r and trans kids. International students. Young people who are tired of watching politicians turn their lives and identities into culture-war talking points.
This generation has inherited a housing market designed to keep them out home ownership among 25-to-34-year-olds has fallen from 61% to 43%. Many will leave university carrying debts they may spend decades repaying. They have already lived through catastrophic bushfires, floods and years of cowardly climate policy.
And then politicians have the audacity to tell them that migrants, international students, trans people or First Nations communities are the problem.
Young people can see Australia as it really is: a country with a Black history, a multicultural present and a q***r future. A country that desperately needs to change its approach to wealth, housing, climate, inequality and justice.
These students understand something many adults in power refuse to admit: hate will not make housing affordable. Racism will not reduce university debt. Transphobia will not act on climate change. Blaming migrants will not tax billionaires or redistribute wealth.
The kids are more than alright.
They are informed. They are brave. They are politically awake. They are refusing to inherit our silence along with our crises.
Pauline, the future of this country has divested from you.
Young Australia is not buying what you are selling and yesterday, they walked out to prove it.
