Hawke – Australia 2025

I have a weird theory, and don’t shoot me down for this but hear me out. There’s two types of swings that we could potentially see in this election, and reflecting on the trends demonstrated by the WA election, I think the following could occur.

1) The Labor seats with the biggest margins will have the biggest swings, so that’s your Gorton, Calwell, Scullin etc, all of which have been solid red seats forever. On the other hand, seats like Hawke, Dunkley, Holt and Bruce which are on medium-ish margins aren’t going to see a massive swing, but modest ones to bring the margin down to marginal territory, whilst seats like Chisholm, Menzies, Deakin etc will likely see the smallest swings. The reason I say this is because given most of these seats are Labor held for eons, it suggests to me that even if the Labor brand is starting to lose its appeal, most people don’t trust the Liberals to the same magnitude. In fact some might think the Liberals are even worse than a Labor party on the nose. What they would do in those cases is that, given both sides seem to be level in terms of commitments, that they swing hard on primaries and those votes spray everywhere, and come back to Labor weaker on preferences, resulting in a bunch of seats turning marginal or only fairly safe. It’s done to give their MPs a shock and say ‘Hey, do better or else’.

2) This scenario is probably more probable. Marginal seats closer to the city such as Chisholm, could see a small swing but is probably more favourable to be retained by Labor. Why? Simply because Chisholm is now closer to Melbourne city where the Labor brand is holding up well in the inner-city/middle ring areas. Conversely, the further away from the city you get, in electorates like Hawke, Holt, McEwen etc, the bigger the swings get because the less services, infrastructure, public transport, utilities they get, the angrier people are, not to mention more families with mortgages, mcmansions amongst other things. It’s like in Perth, where seats like Bateman, Bicton and a few more Labor pickups saw a very small swing compared to seats like Butler, Joondalup, Wanneroo etc in the northern suburbs where they copped a belting because of their distance and thus lack of things that the city has.

Hope that all made sense.

It’s usually due to demographic changes. Plus seats that have been taken for granted by Labor wanting change and because the Labor party I shifting towards the elites formerly Lib party voters while the libs are becoming more appealing to working class voters. The same in the us with the democrats and the republicans

@Tommo9,
That appears to be what’s happening in Victoria, the Labor brand is seriously damaged in western, northern and south eastern Melbourne due to the feeling of being abandoned and cost of living whereby eastern Melbourne seems to be fairing quite well. In fact polling has Labor possibly picking up Deakin so we could see a similar thing like we did in the 2022 state and federal election Victoria the government improves in Eastern Melbourne but goes backwards or loses seats in other places.

Agree Tommo and John, I believe Australia is going through the same realignment occurring in other countries like the US where affluent voters in the inner-city areas no longer align with the conservative party due to its shift towards social issues. Conversely, those in the outer suburbs who are ‘blue collar’ or self-employed will back the conservatives instead of the left leaning party due to their focus on efficiency and red tape reduction.

@yoh and are voting on economc issues which labor has shifted away from

In Canada, the Conservatives was almost certain to win by a landslide and the Canadian Liberal Party was about the lose big up until Trump’s presidency and now Canadian Liberal Party made a comeback to go back to competitive (and even leading on most polls as of today) because of Trump and his tariffs alongside at the same time with Trudeau replaced with Mark Carney and decline of NDP. I wonder if Dutton loses, would Trump had be a factor on hindering his chance? (Although I expect the impact wouldn’t be as big as Canada for obvious reasons)

doubtful the polls have been pretty consistent and trump isnt much of a factor here.

Marh, a difference for Canada is that ‘unpopular’ leader Justin Trudeau stepped down and his replacement (Mark Carney) is seen as an outsider similar to Trump who can argue the case for nationalism better.

In Australia, Labor still has Albanese as leader who is not that popular. I believe the election will be close and that Labor will finish with roughly the same number of seats as the Coalition. Polling for Australia has barely moved (maybe a slight uptick for Labor) unlike Canada which saw a huge surge for the Liberal Party (ALP equivalent) there.

I think there is a small but steady trend in Labor’s direction since the consequences of Trump (and Dutton adopting some of his ideas) are being seen in the US, and this seems to be consolidating now that the campaign has started too.

It’s only small, but within about 2 months we’ve seen consistent 51-49 (to Coalition) polling turn into consistent 51-49 (to Labor) polling. One of the biggest turnarounds though has been Dutton’s approval ratings which have absolutely tanked.

By the end of the campaign if Labor’s 2PP is consistently polling around 52% and Dutton continues to decline, Labor could finish at least close to a majority possibly only needing support from 1-2 crossbenchers.

I think seats like Hawke, Bruce and Holt on those “medium” margins would be retained with moderate swings against Labor, while even seats like Chisholm on a much smaller margin could also be retained. If the polling trend continues, Labor could limit their Victorian losses to just a couple of seats (Aston & McEwen being the two most likely).

It will be interesting to see the distribution of different margins after this election compared to the past. Safe Labor seats are trending away from Labor, and safe Liberal seats are trending away from the Liberals. How many seats will there be on margins above 10%? Above 20? I would assume fewer than ever.

While trump may be a factor in opinion polling I don’t think he’s gonna be front of mind in people’s decision making at the ballot box its gonn a be “am I better off today then I was 3 years ago.” Ultimately it’s gonna be close with both parties to get around 68-70 Seats but if Dutton can win the majority of those teal seats back it’s gonna be in his favour to form govt with 2-3 crossbemchers. If the teals lose mackellar Goldstein Kooyong and Curtin Albo won’t have any chance of forming govt.