“Many Australians are turning down the volume on Canberra’s noise. They are giving up on politics holding any value for them.” - Scott Morrison

Our political landscape feels more fractured than ever before. Declining trust in major institutions is a measurable global trend.

Australian voters have never been more switched off from political process, despite candidates and campaigns connecting via an ever-growing range of media channels.

But Australians aren’t afraid to stand up when they’re passionate and empowered. In October 2018, over 300,000 people signed a petition to protest the advertisement of horse racing on the Sydney Opera House. ⁽⁴⁾

Political messaging has become shorter, sharper and more shared online. Politicians who promise to shake up the establishment are those that connect with voters.

In the 1960s, voters that stayed loyal to one particular party represented over 70% of the electorate. By the 2016 federal election, this had declined to 40%. ⁽⁶⁾ The “lifetime” voter is becoming rarer, meaning just targeting Liberal or Labor voters isn’t enough.

During the 2016 federal election, nearly a quarter of Australians gave their first preference to parties other than Labor and the Coalition. This has been on the rise since 2007. ⁽⁷⁾

As the political landscape becomes more diverse, it is important for campaigns to speak to the needs of voters as individuals, rather than targeting large sections of society with blanket messages.

Our Trust Index rating is at 40%, which is just 4 points higher than Russia, the nation least-trusting of their state and cultural institutions. Australia and Singapore were the only two nations in the world that saw continued decline in trust across all four major institutions.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison recently became Australia’s sixth PM in just over a decade. A period of sustained leadership could go a long way, but it cannot be the only solution.

If parties and politicians want to rebuild trust with those whose votes they seek, they need to change the way they communicate with their constituents as individuals.

A 91% voter turnout at the 2016 federal election was the lowest recorded since the introduction of compulsory voting in 1925.

In the Northern Territory, just 74% of those on the electoral roll recorded votes. That figure drops to 60% if you include the 26,000 eligible voters who are not on the electoral roll. ⁽¹¹⁾

But Australians still connect with the issues they’re passionate about, and will put in the effort required to make their vote count. 79.5% of the Australian electorate participated in the completely voluntary Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey in 2017. ⁽¹²⁾

Political campaigns need to make voters feel empowered and represented as individuals, not statistics, to encourage them to be part of our important electoral process.

Making predictions is never easy, or foolproof. But recent years have seen polls and pundits get it spectacularly wrong on several occasions.

As Americans went to the polls in 2016, last-minute polling gave Hillary Clinton an unassailable chance of victory. Donald Trump is the US president.

On the other side of the Atlantic, a majority of polls predicted that British voters would vote to stay part of the European Union. The unexpected happened.

In Australia, there are 3.1 million swinging voters living in marginal seats who hold a substantial amount of power at election time. ⁽¹⁵⁾ They’re also the hardest to connect with effectively.  ⁽¹⁶⁾

Campaigns need to be able to identify these voters, speak to them directly, and empower them to swing in the right direction.