Education, age keys to Labor win

LABOR’S win at last month’s election ultimately came down to education and age, a comprehensive new study has revealed.

According to new analysis from the Australian National University, age and education were the two key demographics that had driven Labor’s path to victory, with an exhaustive breakdown of which voters turned away from the Scott Morrison government.

The study further found that the election result had resulted in Australians feeling more satisfied with their government than since before the 2019 bushfires.

Analysis of 3500 voters found among those with higher levels of education, who voted for the Coalition in 2019, almost a third took their vote elsewhere last month.

Meanwhile, Coalition voters who had not completed year 12 were more likely to maintain their vote, with only 14.8 per cent of that group having changed their mind.

Labor voters were more likely to have high levels of education and live in capital cities.

Co-author Nicholas Biddle said age was another key finding in what had helped chart Labor’s path to victory.

“More than one in three voters aged under 55 – 34.9 per cent – who voted for the Coalition in 2019 ended up voting for someone else,” he said.

“Around one in five – 21.1 per cent – aged 55 or older did the same.”

Female voters were less likely to vote for the coalition, compared with males, but the largest gender parity was among those who voted for the Greens.

The study found 22.5 per cent of female voters voted for the Greens, compared with just 16.4 per cent of males.

Greens voters were more likely to be young females, who spoke English as a first language.

Coalition voters meanwhile tended to be older, non-Indigenous with lower education and with a household income that puts them outside of the bottom line quintile.

The study found the Coalition also lost more voters in capital cities, with 30.7 per cent of former Coalition voters living in capital cities changing their vote in 2022.