I am loitering out the front of the railway station in the Melbourne suburb of Brighton, rubbing my hands together furiously as the wind blows in off the sea and into my face.

As arranged, I am clutching a book under one arm so my interviewee will recognise me. It is The Crikey Guide to the 2007 Federal Election.

The book seems somewhat relevant, given the circumstances. It's that time of the electoral cycle again, and I am waiting to meet the Australian Democrats candidate for the marginal seat of Isaacs, Laura Chipp.

I have been meeting politicians for weeks now in the lead-up to the federal election. I have been accused of misquoting Lindsay Tanner and have shared a joke with Kerry Nettle. I have been asking questions about young people, about what they think and how they vote. I have been asking about how young people engage in politics and whether they are as apathetic about it as certain media commentators would have us believe.

The wind down this way is very cold.

I am beginning to wonder if I'm in the right place when a young girl with a nose ring approaches me.

"Excuse me," she says, stealing a glance at the book. "Are you Matt?"

And you must be Laura.

She is not your average political candidate.

For one thing, she's the daughter of the Democrats' legendary founder, Don Chipp. The need to keep the bastards honest, one assumes, is in her blood.

Most striking, however, is the fact that she's slightly younger than I am. Given the average age of most people I've been interviewing, this is actually quite a novelty. Laura Chipp is the only politician I have spoken to who can claim to be as stressed out as I am about upcoming university exams.

"Since I've become a candidate I sometimes forget that I'm even enrolled," she tells me.

Chipp, 22, is one of an unprecedented number of Young Australian Democrats running for a seat in the House of Representatives in next month's federal election.

There are 10 such candidates in Victoria, another two in South Australia, three in New South Wales, and eight in Queensland. While most are in their earlier twenties, some are even younger. The Democrats' candidate for the seat of Bendigo, Edward Guymer, is 18 years old and is still completing Year 12. He may or may not have graduated before polling day.

Chipp and I pick a random café and find ourselves some seats towards the back.

My first question is an obvious one designed to get the conversation rolling.

"Why have you decided to run?" I ask.

"I grew up with politics," Chipp smiles, stating the obvious. "And I have always wanted to get involved. And I think now, I'm 22, I can offer something. And something different, something fresh. I'm not just the typical mould of what a politician is seen to be."

"But 22 isn't very old," I contend. "Some people might think your age is a bad thing, a liability."

She shrugs. "With public perception there's always the good and the bad. While some people say, 'Wow, it's good that young people are getting involved', others say, 'Oh, there's no experience'."

But she says there has been more positive feedback than there has been negative.

"I have found a very large niche of people who are saying, 'We need someone local, we need someone who's going to represent us'. People seem to be really interested in the policies I'm using as a platform."

"Everyone I've talked to has been overwhelmingly supportive. Random people I've never met say, 'I'm going to go and letterbox, give me flyers.' That's really my strategy, this grassroots approach."

"We have this huge poster of Isaacs in our living room and we just sit there memorising every street, every boundary, everything."

In New South Wales, Pierce Field, 18, has found himself in one of the most interesting electoral battlegrounds of the campaign: Wentworth, where the sitting Liberal member, Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull, is fighting tooth and nail to retain his seat.

I ask Field whether contesting Wentworth has been a baptism of fire for him.

"It's one of the big ticket seats," I say.

"It's actually quite enjoyable because you're really getting into the thick of it," he says. "Because it's Malcolm Turnbull's seat it has gained a lot a lot attention, especially from environmental groups and groups who might be inclined to vote for the Democrats."

"The thing is that the decisions we make now about issues that are coming up in this election—things like climate change and IR—are what we're going to be growing old with. In twenty, thirty years' time, these things are going to affect my generation the most. It's really important that we have a say."

I ask him what his campaign is going to look like.

"Well, I've started speaking at a number of forums," he begins. "There are a lot of forums happening in Wentworth. I've been invited to about four or five."

"My budget's not that high. There's a lot of leafleting that will kick off very, very shortly. I got a little bit of press in the local paper, The Wentworth Courier, and The Sydney Star Observer as well."

"It's also about getting a bit of an online presence. I've got a blog that I started writing in, and a lot of people are clicking on to that, which is good. Because I've got to work full-time as well my weekends will be dedicated to campaigning. Just getting out there and meeting people, talking to people, that's what it's all about."

Both Chipp and Field believe the main issues concerning young voters in this election are climate change, higher education and industrial relations.

"I remember when I started my first job," says Field. "I was 14 years and nine moths old. There was no way I would have been able to negotiate and understand an AWA."

Chipp also wants to highlight mental health issues, "especially in primary and secondary schools", which she thinks have been grossly overlooked by the Howard Government.

The Democrats' Victorian campaign manager, David Collyer, who is also running for the seat of Kooyong, says the "bright-eyed idealism and energy" of Chipp and Field is what sets them apart from older candidates.

"They have time-frames measuring in decades," he says. "They are genuinely concerned by long term prospects and visions."

I ask how Collyer plans to co-ordinate the campaigns of his Victorian charges.

"Well, they're sometimes vulnerable to steely journalists who ask trick questions that can trap the unwary or innocent," he says. "So I try to prep them, if I can, particularly with their written materials. My role as campaign manager is to be the candidates' sounding board on anything."

As Collyer notes, the most striking thing about these candidates is the energy and enthusiasm with which they are engaging with the political process, particularly at a time when many young people have been written off by politicians and the press as apathetic and uncaring.

The University of Sydney's Ariadne Vromen says that "the one area of participation that remains low for young people is membership of political parties."

Vromen doesn't see this as a sign of young people's disengagement, however.

"We ought to see this as indicating how unappealing political parties have become," she says. "It is up to parties to change to involve a new generation."

The Australian Democrats, it seems, have somehow managed to do just that.

Most of the young House of Representative candidates are actively engaged with the Young Australian Democrats, or YADS, the national party's thriving youth wing. Chipp is the groups' national spokesperson and Field is Secretary of the New South Wales division.

While groups like Young Labor and the Young Liberals have seen a slow but steady decline in membership over the last decade or more, YADS has experienced an unusual increase, particularly over the course of the last twelve months.

A number of people inside the Party have credited Tim Wright, 22, for this resurgence. Running against Labor Shadow Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner in the seat of Melbourne, Wright is also the Australian president of YADS.

"I think there's a misconception that the Australian Democrats are predominantly old age," he says. "It's very encouraging for people to see young people joining the party."

"I think it's important for young people to see that other young people are involved. YADS has really tired to make things less formal and more focused on action: staging stunts, making YouTube videos. A lot of people have great ideas."

Some of these ideas have even gotten the party much-needed media attention. Earlier this month, Wright, dressed in oversized koala costume, appeared in a YouTube video attacking the Howard Government's controversial citizenship test. Chipp has appeared in YouTube videos with Democrats leader Senator Lyn Allison.

"In Victoria, we have one third of our House of Representative candidates actively engaged in YADS," Wright says. "The youth division has become more active in the last year. We've been campaigning quite hard. Senator Allision is very encouraged by young people."

This, it seems to me, is an understatement.

Senator Lyn Allison could not be happier with the performances of candidates like Chipp, Field and Wright. Sitting in her office on Wellington Parade in Melbourne, the Party's leader can't help but smile when I bring up the next generation of Democrats.

"The health of the party is only served if we have a vibrant youth wing," she says. "I'm told the Y Generation is much more inclined to look at the Democrats than the X was, and that they're a bit disenchanted with the Greens."

I put it to her that having so many young people running for the House of Representatives may in fact look desperate to some voters.

"Are you worried that people might think you're merely trying to fill in the gaps on the ballot?" I ask.

"It's more important than filling the ballots," she replies. "It's true that we don't expect too many people in the House of Reps to be elected…" She laughs. "That would be a bit beyond our capacity right now."

"But if we don't have House of Reps candidates then we don't get the votes for the Senate. On a purely pragmatic level, it's absolutely crucial for the Senate seats to have representatives in every electorate."

But there are other benefits, she insists.

"I just think it's a very healthy thing. Young people need to be given the opportunity to run as candidates, too. To strut their stuff, to get used to the media attention, standing up at forums, really getting into their local issues, and also being disciplined on policy."

Retiring Democrats Senator Natasha Stott-Despoja, the youngest female politician to ever be elected to the Senate, agrees that having young people run for the House of Representative does not reflect badly on the candidates or the Party.

"Hey, I was a Senator at 26!" she laughs. "It would be a little hypocritical of me to say we should have fewer young candidates!"

"Look, if we were only running young people—or only old people, for that matter—I think that's when you subject yourself to criticism that you've got no diversity, that you can't do better."

"As it is, I think we've got a very diverse, exciting group of ages and backgrounds."

She pauses a moment before adding pointedly: "And I don't think anyone would accuse Laura Chipp of not having, not only a political pedigree—because it's not just about her dad—but having real gut political instinct and passion. You don't need to be old to have that."

I run this compliment past Laura, who blushes modestly and laughs.

As for her electoral chances, she is remaining philosophical about them.

"A lot of people have come up to me and said, 'Oh, you've got it in the bag', and it's fantastic that they're enthusiastic, but I'm a realist about it. It's my first election, I am younger, and you are restricted as a candidate for the Democrats because it is more of a Senate-based thing."

"But it's really good practice for a first-time campaign, because I would like to get involved with politics in the future, especially in the Senate."

Field says he has similar ambitions.

"In ten, twenty years time, having a crack at the Senate would be great," he says.

"Will young people save the Democrats?" I ask him.

"Yes," he says without hesitation. "We have got such a strong youth base around the country that is willing to do things. Even if we don't get anyone elected this year the party will still be there."

Stott-Despoja agrees completely.

"It warms my heart that so many young people are getting involved," she says. "It's a challenging time in the Democrats' history and this shows a degree of faith in the Party, and also that our policies are still relevant."

"You sort of have to care about these things," says Field. "You've got to get out there and have your say or you're not going to get heard otherwise."

"You're never going to change anything if you sit on your hands and do nothing."

ElectionTracker, 5 November 2007