In September, 19-year-old Libby Austin became the youngest person ever elected to Penrith City Council.

“I’m not going to lie, it was such a scary experience,” she says, of the moment she realised she was running uncontested for her position. “It was my first time ever voting in a council election and now, I’m a councillor.”

Part of her fear stemmed from the fact young people are the most underrepresented age group in local councils each election cycle. This year was no different.

Austin is one of only three people under 30 elected to the 15 positions in Penrith City Council. In Campbelltown Council, four of the 15 elected were under 35, despite that age group making up over 49 per cent of the population in that area. In Mosman Council, there were none.

'It is difficult to try and get into a field where you feel like you are possibly not going to be welcomed.'

Ed Krutsch, the national director of Run For It, an organisation that encourages young people to run for and engage with Australian politics, says that only 12 per cent of councils on Australia’s east coast have a young councillor.

"The consequences of that are quite devastating. We have a lot of councils that make poor decisions in terms of housing, climate change or parks and transport and things like that because there aren’t younger people represented on those councils who can share their lived experiences,” Krutsch says.

According to him, there are a number of structural factors that discourage young people from running for local councils, including the cost and time required for running a successful campaign. Further, the lack of representation can create a self-perpetuating cycle.

“The number one [barrier] is the representation factor; young people don’t see themselves on council; they don’t see the councils looking like them, talking about the issues they care about, or even having an impact on their lives.

“Because they don’t see themselves represented in our democracy, [they are] less likely to run,” he says.

My conversations with Austin revealed the social pressure that can also discourage young people from running for local council.

“There is a lot of animosity and a bit of stigma against young people,” she says, speaking on how society often tells people that their careers cannot start until after university.

“I didn’t realise how much until I got into this position. The first few media articles that were released about me tried to use the fact that I was a university student and the fact that I was 19 as a bad thing.”

The longer it takes to achieve diversity in local councils, the longer it will likely take at higher levels of government.

But the issue extends further than a lack of diversity in age, with NSW local councils not reflecting the general public across a number of other areas.

An April 2024 report showed only 10.1 per cent of the councillors in 2021 were from linguistically-diverse backgrounds, highlighting another disparity as more than 29 per cent of Australians are born overseas and 48 per cent of Australians have a parent born overseas.

“There are natural barriers those people face every single day and politics is always generally framed as an atypical male dominated place,” Austin says of the disconnect. "It is difficult to try and get into a field where you feel like you are possibly not going to be welcomed.

“Pretty much [all the barriers] are worse and amplified because there is less representation and often less resources,” Krutsch says. “To be honest, there is definitely a data gap and that sits with the electoral commission and local authorities who don’t collect this information, [or] if they do, they don’t have processes to share this.”

'If we don’t help people get involved and create safe, welcoming spaces ... [we will] continue to have people who are not represented.'

During her term, Austin plans to establish a Youth Advisory Committee to ensure that young people’s voices continue to be heard regardless of who gets elected in four-years time.

“I’m starting off with one goal, and that’s the goal I have,” she says. “There is a very likely chance that in a few years time there might not be a youth voice and it would be so disappointing if because of that, youth people don’t get collaborated with or don’t get their voices heard.”

Another potential solution to the lack of elected young people is through affirmative action. This year, the Labor party’s affirmative action policy required women candidates stand in 45 per cent of winnable positions.

“Because of that, Penrith City now has a majority female council. It makes sure that we are removing one of those barriers, [by] making it easier for women to get involved,” says Austin, who will support affirmative action policies in relation to ethnicity, sexuality and age.

Another factor discouraging young people and people from diverse backgrounds from standing for local government may be a lack of understanding on what local councils actually do.

“People don’t realise how much council actually impacts our lives,” Austin says. “Council is your childcare, it’s our roads, it is the closest form of government to the people. It’s community building.”

The Office of Local Government has not yet released its analysis of background information on diversity provided by candidates and councillors. Once released, this will provide indicators on the areas where diversity needs improvement.

“The worst thing that a council can have is 'one voice'. A council claims to represent every member of it’s community,” Austin says. “If we don’t help people get involved and create safe, welcoming spaces for these people to be involved, we are going to continue to have people who are not represented.”