[Crazy Dazz]

I suspect that party devotion DOES become more entrenched with the passage of time. Perhaps part of it is an unwillingness to admit to past mistakes.
(It was often been suggested that the reason many US presidents get a 2nd term, even when faced with unpopularity, is that voters don’t want to say they made a mistake.)

This is not to say that young voters are necessarily “correct” in their reasons for voting, but at least the reasons are contemporary rather than historical.

However for that very reason, I do believe that the voting age should be progressively raised. Unfortunately what I am seeing now with my own children, is a very spoiled generation. They have grown up in the late 90’s and 00’s, a very prosperous time with plentiful employment (in WA) high disposable income (WA) and cheap consumer goods. They are too young to remember recessions we suffered through the late 70’s and 80’s, the AUD at 53c, youth unemployment at 30%, and mortgage rates at 17%. Consequently they are fuelled with glassy-eyed idealism about how the world should be run.
(And that’s a not a criticism aimed at one party over the other, I'm just saying that Australia currently faces a lot of challenges, which will get even harder over the next decade, and politicians should be evaluated over their ability to tackle those challenges rather than on some airy-fairy idealism.)