Rudd gets an "F" for Yoof

Only Kevin Rudd would think of telling the story of RM Williams when talking to young people. Youths can relate to RM Williams, according to our PM, because he was only 24 “when he designed his famous elastic-sided boots for stockmen”. This pretty much sums up the PM's understanding of people under 25 in his new blog "Helping young Australians build their futures". The title alone is very Rudd.

Recently the PM has made half-hearted attempts to engage with an online audience through blogs and twitter. But the 'yoof' blog — which started Friday — stands out for its condescending style. Rudd is the school principal handing out the 'good effort' awards to the bottom-of-the-pile students at the back of the hall. You can almost hear him say, "here you go young people, you're doing your best" and counselling them with the phrase "growing up has its challenges".

The PM's intro to the blog reads like a youth issues rap sheet - implying all young people are overweight, mentally ill, violent or helpless. But don't worry, says Rudd, we're having youth summits and meetings. Labor has a young people plan, apparently, and this blog will be an integral part. The PM (or presumably one of his staff) writes: "to get us rolling, I want to hear from you what matters most". This deserves an old school Garth from Wayne's World style "nawt". Rudd is the nerd trying too hard, with a “too cool for school” sticker on his backpack. There is no point pretending he will magically turn the comments posted on the youth blog into policy.

One can't help but compare the youth blog with Obama's back to school speech to US students. Although the Obama speech was meant for a younger audience, it expressed some noble truths about the need for young people to be involved citizens. Despite a pre-speech ideological war over Obama's ''indoctrination" of his audience, the American president spoke genuinely about responsibility and the importance of education. This went alongside the normal platitudes about "staying in school" and "listening to your parents". Although a bit cheesy at times, the Obama speech clearly had a resonance. There was an organised interactive element, where students were asked to write letters to the President. However there was no pretence about policy here, merely an attempt to get students' thinking.

The PM's youth blog is a think-free zone. The few comments posted after its launch seemed to be a recycling of the PM's message. These were clearly not the disengaged, overweight and violent youth referred to in the intro. And why would they be? The disengaged will probably never hear of this blog. Why would most young people even think of going on the PM's website in the first place? Let alone registering with an email and password — a prerequisite for participating in the blog. The internet and blogs in particular are for seekers of information. Obama's address was able to engage students because it was organised within schools and asked the audience to write letters as part of a school project. Youth summits and blogs are all very well but they target young people who are already engaged, maybe even aspiring to one day slip into the PM's shoes. Not those who wouldn't even think of the idea.

Rudd, I give your blog an F for 'yoof'.