Australia needs to engage its youth population around AUKUS

Despite a push for openness and transparency in communicating the Australian National Defence posture, one group the Australian government is failing to converse with is its own citizens, especially its youth.

Communication is integral to AUKUS’s resilience and success. As Australia’s youth will be the generation who will be asked to provide for the national defence when AUKUS comes to fruition, it stands to reason that they must understand its value.

A multi-pronged and well-funded approach from the government is therefore needed for effective engagement with them. This approach must be focused on social media presence, outreach to youth organisations and schools and increasing access to AUKUS-related information.

As the agreement moves forward, all three partners must improve their messaging, particularly regarding Pillar II—advanced capabilities. Disjointed messaging between them that fails to account for each country’s socio-political environment risks losing public support and poses a threat to AUKUS’s survival.

Explanations of AUKUS can’t rely wholly on defence aspects but must include non-traditional security facets as well. A key topic Australian youth are most concerned about is the environment. So, in regard to nuclear submarines, Australian government officials must be prepared to discuss plans for disposal of nuclear waste and fears of a naval Chernobyl. Additional discussions must be had about what the youth role in the economy will be under AUKUS and the impacts of Pillars I and II for Australia’s economy and market. Telling them how the agreement benefits their daily lives now and into the future will go a long way to maintaining support.

The Office for Youth recently launched the Engage! Strategy, designed to improve young people’s involvement in government. The government can tailor elements of this strategy to specific needs of AUKUS messaging. Specifically, younger populations are increasingly getting news from non-traditional media sources. They are less likely to look for an official government statement, so the government must meet them in spaces they frequent. In fact, 68.8 percent of young Australians want the government to engage them on social media platforms.

To meet this demand for engagement, the government must be creative in its social media presence.

One example of innovative presence is NATO’s #ProtectTheFuture campaign, in which NATO experts played popular video games on Twitch with streamers from alliance countries. In partnering with Twitch streamer and Youtuber ZeRoyalViking to discuss NATO, cybersecurity and how video games can teach digital safety practices, they reached more than 40,000 people.

Australian government officials should do similar collaborations surrounding AUKUS with YouTube and Twitch streamers from Australia. These could be focused on explaining AUKUS or take a thematic slant aligned with the two pillars.

Keeping a finger on current trends and viral content also plays a critical role in the social media space. Part of the reason for the success of the NATO campaign was that the platform, games and streamers connected with what viewers were interested in at the time.

A comparable phenomenon can be seen with Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign and social media account @KamalaHQ. What has brought Harris’s presidential campaign to the forefront of American youth was singer and songwriter Charli XCX tweeting that ‘kamala IS brat’. This tweet—based off the pop culture trend of Brat Summer—spread to Harris’s marketing campaign, in turn reinvigorating youth voters.

Social media engagement isn’t a panacea, however. Youth organisations, especially at schools across the country, are also key.

Whether it’s by sending AUKUS experts to speak at organisation meetings or hosting online webinars, there’s room for engagement through connecting with those who have intersecting interests. This could look like hosting a Q&A panel or trivia night with student political organisations. Outreach should also engage science and technology organisations and vocational institutions to discuss job opportunities that will become available due to AUKUS.

The final area the Australian government must harness for youth engagement with AUKUS is a singular, dominant digital presence. Creating a first point of contact online ensures that information on AUKUS is accessible for Australian youth who wish to learn more.

A common way to link information is through services such as Linktree or with a website. Currently, the AUKUS partnership has neither. By linking sources from all three governments to associated social media accounts, the public will see trusted, verified sources to turn to alongside traditional media avenues. Starting this process now would generate a solid foundation for issues or addressing misinformation that may come up in the future.

Youth engagement with AUKUS is vital to its long-term success. Through ongoing messaging campaigns, Australia must continue to convince its citizens on why AUKUS matters, how it affects them and what it changes about the Australian way of life—because the fact of the matter is that, without Australia’s younger populace on board, literally and figuratively, the future of AUKUS is uncertain.