Hervey Bay has no shortage of voices advocating for the future of our community. The problem is that too few of those voices belong to the people who will actually live with the consequences of today’s decisions.
Attend almost any public meeting about development, housing, planning or growth and you’ll notice the same pattern. The loudest voices are often from older generations who have already secured their homes, built their wealth and established their place in the community. There is nothing wrong with that. Their views matter.
But where are the Millennials and Gen Z residents?
Where are the people struggling to enter the housing market? Where are the young families paying rising rents? Where are the workers who cannot afford to live close to their jobs? Where are the young professionals deciding whether Hervey Bay offers them a future?
Too often, they are missing from the conversation. As a result, their interests are being drowned out.
The reality is that Hervey Bay cannot freeze itself in time. We need more housing. We need jobs. We need investment. We need a vision that extends beyond the next five years and looks toward the next fifty.
Yet many debates are dominated by those who will not be living here long enough to experience the full consequences of restricting growth, limiting housing supply or discouraging investment.
That may sound uncomfortable, but it is a question worth asking.
Should the future of Hervey Bay be determined primarily by those who benefited from a different economic era, or should younger generations have a stronger voice in shaping the community they will inherit?
If Millennials and Gen Z don’t start showing up, speaking up and demanding representation, nobody should be surprised when decisions continue to be made without them.
What do you think? Is Hervey Bay listening to its younger generations, or are they missing in action?
This topic will likely generate strong engagement because it challenges both younger residents for their lack of participation and older residents for their dominance of local debates.
