Social darwinism in Darwin, Australia.

The cost of living in Darwin can be a strain at the best of times, but imagine you had just $2 per day to feed yourself. This is the challenge Darwin dietician Nicola McBride is taking on for one week, along with thousands of other young Australians.

Poverty, discrimination and a lack of connection between western living and other cultures were the key issues Year 12 Kormilda students raised at a workshop with UN representative Adam Pulford.

Adam - a former student from Kormilda College - visited the school as part of a national tour aimed at canvassing the issues young people want action on.

"I want to make sure young people are better represented in our public sphere," Adam said.

"I feel like a lot of young people are disillusioned about the current political situation - 50 per cent of 18-19 year olds aren't enrolled to vote and 20 per cent of 20-24 year olds aren't. That's an indication young people are feeling disillusioned about politics.

"But the way I see it, if young people in Darwin care about inequality and poverty then this September 14 they have an opportunity to vote for the parties that represent them on these issues."

Kormilda student Cody McFarlane said his experience studying alongside Indigenous students had made him passionate about eliminating inequality.

"We see the Indigenous people at different classes to us - the inequality in the education between them and us is completely different - kids older than me I would have to help type and write," he said.

Student Emma Jackson said her generation's concerns around inequality and poverty needed more recognition at a political level.

"We are the future and we should have a say in what happens from now on because we are the ones who are going to be running the world," she said.

But when it comes to voting, she admits not many of her friends have much of an interest.

"I'm not sure it's that we don't care, but we haven't been give an opportunity to care...it's not been made accessible to us in a way we can understand it really does apply to our lives."

Friend Keirra-Jay said young people found it hard to link their concerns with political policies.

"We don't make the connection between the big issues we care about like discrimination and inequality and the political issues like the NDIS, we're just not really aware of it."

Adam will spend the coming months equipping young people with advocacy skills and encouraging them to enrol to vote in the Federal election.

He will then report his findings to the United Nations in New York at the end of the year.