More than 1.2 million people have filled in ABC's Vote Compass

ABC NEWS (Australia)

More than 1.2 million people have now completed ABC’s Vote Compass survey. The data found that many voters have shifting views on the environment, the cost-of-living and our relationship with the U.S.

Transcript

00:00It feels like people are going into this election thinking about different things than they were

00:06to 2022. So the ABC's been running Vote Compass now for five election cycles. So we compared

00:12the data from this election to last election. And if we think back to 2022, not so long

00:17ago, but a really different climate. Inflation hasn't run away yet. The Ukraine-Russia war

00:23has just started. We're still sort of in the shadows of COVID and people went into that

00:28election. And according to Vote Compass respondents, their top issue of concern was the environment.

00:34It was a much bigger conversation there. We'd have some really big climate summits in the

00:38years leading up to that. Now this election, the top issue of concern for voters is cost

00:44of living. About a third of Vote Compass respondents said that it was even more pronounced amongst

00:49younger cohorts. So for those under 29, it went up even higher and it was the least pronounced

00:56in the over 65s. They were the ones who appeared to be feeling this crunch even less. Vote Compass

01:01found that about 45% of respondents said they were struggling to live on their current income.

01:08So perhaps going into this, there were a lot of people really thinking about their own hip

01:11pockets, family budgets, household expenses. And it's been interesting to see how maybe that

01:17focus has shifted views on other social or environmental issues. So on issues like immigration,

01:23fewer Vote Compass respondents wanted to see more immigrants coming into the country on environmental

01:29issues. There was a really significant drop in the number of people who said that they wanted much

01:34more done to reduce carbon emissions, dropping from 61% to 36% this year. So as we head to the

01:41polls, it seems like people are really thinking about those financial issues.

01:44And I imagine housing also played a pretty big part in that theme as well this time around.

01:48Yeah, housing was one of those top issues of concerns as well. And that wasn't even in

01:52that top 10 at the last 2022 election. So housing, economy, they're the big issues.

01:59Yeah, and that's what overshadowed perhaps the climate concerns that were held a couple of

02:03years ago. You mentioned young people there. We know that this election is going to have

02:07the largest cohort of millennials and Gen Zs this time around. So what were some of the

02:15themes that came through from younger voters? Really interesting as well, because they have

02:19their really distinct political leanings compared to the rest of the electorate, particularly young

02:24women. So 67% of women under the age of 29 who did Vote Compass described themselves as being

02:31left leaning. And that compares to about 52% of women from other generations. They were even more

02:38left wing than their male peers. About 50% of men under the age of 29 said that they would describe

02:44themselves as left leaning. And when we look at young women, on almost all of the sort of social

02:49issues, questions we asked around Indigenous rights, government intervention and issues, they were the

02:55most likely to be supportive. So you have this younger cohort that appears to be much more progressive.

03:02And the Australian election study that was done after 2022, it found that this Gen Z generation,

03:07so all Australians under the age of 29, were more progressive than other generations past.

03:13So it'll be interesting to see if the major parties are speaking to them, which politicians

03:17they're connecting to. They're obviously less likely to be watching TV, listening to the radio,

03:22reading newspapers. But we have seen that push this election from our politicians to try and be more

03:27on podcasts and YouTube. Influencers. But I was out shouting to a lot of young women and young men

03:33in this election campaign saying, trying to figure out who was speaking to them. And they said,

03:39look, we've seen the dancing on TikTok. We're not so convinced by politicians doing the daggy dancing,

03:45but we want policies that are really designed for us. And it seemed like there was this sense of

03:49frustration that there were policies being offered that would sort of tinker on the edges of those big

03:54issues like housing and economy. And they wanted really substantive change that they weren't really seeing.

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