Voters in the ACT head to the polls on territory election day

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Polls have opened this morning for the ACT election. It will determine whether ACT Labor is returned for a historic seventh term of government or if the Canberra Liberals will end their 23 years in opposition.

Transcript

00:00Voting is very much underway in earnest this morning.

00:06The barbecues are fired up, they've been pumping out democracy sausages, democracy bacon and

00:11egg rolls, and there's also a coffee van and a cake stall as well, so there's plenty on

00:17offer for voters today.

00:19What's interesting in the ACT is that early voting is really popular.

00:23In 2020, less than a third of votes were cast on polling day, that was obviously a pandemic

00:28election.

00:30This year hasn't been quite as popular, but nevertheless, 40-50% of voters have already

00:35cast their vote, and most of those have done so electronically, which means that hopefully

00:40this evening determining a result should be pretty quick.

00:44In the absence of any opinion polls, what we know is that there is a bit of a mood for

00:49change around.

00:50ACT Labor's now been in power for 23 years, most recently governing in a coalition with

00:56the Greens, and so there is a sense that now is the time for change.

01:00That's certainly what the Canberra Liberals have been playing on, saying that they've

01:04just been in power for too long, and on the other hand, ACT Labor have been pitching themselves

01:10to voters as that stable hand to guide the government.

01:14Also of note this election is that for the first time in decades, independents have emerged

01:20as a potential political force.

01:24What we don't know is what an assembly would look like with independents in government.

01:29We don't know who they would support, and the ACT's electoral system makes it quite

01:34hard for independents to be elected, so we'll be keeping an eye on that this evening, and

01:39also on what happens with the Greens' vote in 2020.

01:42The Greens gained six seats, which was a historic win for them, and it will be interesting to

01:48see whether they can retain those seats or if support has slid in the last few years.

01:54We just don't know yet whether that mood for change is going to really translate to voters

01:59changing their votes when they head into the polling booths today.

02:02This campaign has been marked by a lack of a single defining issue.

02:07A couple of areas where we have seen difference in the two major parties has been housing

02:11choice, for example, ACT Labor looking at those missing middle reforms to unlock more

02:16density in the housing market, while the Canberra Liberals also supporting an increase to density

02:22but promising to develop a pine plantation to Canberra's east.

02:28We've also seen the two parties differ on how much support, when it comes to cost of

02:32living, should be provided to voters.

02:34When it comes to defining moments of the campaign, just in the last week, yesterday we've seen

02:38ACT Labor have to retract one of its attack ads on the Canberra Liberals after it was

02:44found to be in breach of its electoral laws, and of course, infamously this week, Canberra

02:49Liberals leader Elizabeth Lee was caught on Canberra giving the finger at a journalist

02:56after a tense exchange at a press conference.

02:59And another issue which has emerged throughout the campaign is the issue of vetting candidates.

03:04Both the Liberals and the Greens have had issues where candidates' social media has

03:09come to light which has cast them in a perhaps unfavourable light in the view of voters.

03:15But whether any of that has an impact on voters' choices, we will know this evening.

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