Voter’s choice- ‘I put the worst last’

Australian commonsense has prevailed in this 2025 federal election.

Here’s my initial take on the federal election result of Saturday 3^rd May this year (2025).

It’s a good outcome.

It confirms my view that Australians’ have a commonsense, unflustered approach to politics. They reject division and vote for unity as a nation and as a people. In this respect the 3^rd May election result is consistent with the outcome of the 2023 Voice referendum.

I’ll explain my reasoning. But first a story of what I think is a small window of understanding into the swing voters of ‘middle’ Australia, the people who decide elections.

I was sitting in a train last week several days after the election when I overheard a conversation between four friends sitting opposite me. Three were female, one male, in their twenties I guessed, dressed slightly grunge but with obvious care and style. They chatted freely between themselves about what I don’t know. But my ear tuned in when one of the women half laughed and said “Ha! The election! When I vote I start with the ones I hate the most and put them at the bottom. I hate the socialists the most! Then I work up the list to the one I hate the least!” She didn’t say who she ‘disliked the least’. Then the friendly conversation headed in some other direction, the election now history for their purposes!

First, I was a bit surprised with her comments on socialists. The four of them had the profile ‘look’ and age that I observe is a key target demographic for the socialists/Marxists. (Yes, I attended my third annual Marxists conference during Easter just 2 weeks before the election. I’ll do a Substack report on that and Australian leftism soon.)

However, what I observed with those four is that they are, I think, swing voters. They are not committed to any political party or ideology. Across Australia ‘swing voters’ now constitute perhaps around thirty percent of people. The other seventy percent are people wedded or inclined to a belief in established political brands and vote accordingly. Allegedly Labor is for the worker! Liberals are for business. Nationals are for country folk. The Greens are (were) for the environment! Swing voters determine the outcome of elections. And that comment about “I put the ones I hate the most at the bottom, then work up,’ I suspect most reflects how large numbers of swing voters’ vote.

So, let’s assume that this approach to voting is a key factor or selection method for swing voters in determining election outcomes. How then did this critical group of voters decide at this election, who they disliked the most and who they disliked the least?

First, unusually for Australia, this election I think had a heightened emotional aspect to it. There was a great deal of activity seeking to stir up hate, division, envy and conflict. This was particularly so around the Palestinian/Jewish issue. That is an issue of ethnic, race and religious conflict of the most horrendous kind, happening externally to Australia was transported to Australia as domestic political issue. Given the election outcome, I reason that this divisiveness based on hate has been soundly rejected.

That’s the major reason I consider this election was a good outcome. And this rejection of hate and division makes me happy and proud to be a member of the Australian community. We are a good, tolerant people at our heart.

And assuming that my interpretation of the result is at least somewhat accurate this outcome then is consistent with the rejection of The Voice referendum proposal. The Voice sought to institutionalise race division through and within the Australian Constitution. It was rejected solidly.

Let me look at this theme in a bit more detail.

The Greens

The Greens, who during 2024 had transformed themselves from an environmental party to a socialist/Marxist party, ran hard on the Palestinian/Jewish issue. Essentially the Greens policy positions are hate-based. As socialists they hate capitalism. As Palestinian/Hamas supporters they hate Israel and this translates into hatred of Jews, even Jews who might be socialists! And more, they hate anyone that disagrees with the socialist/Marxist position.

But while still achieving around a 11-12 percent vote in the Senate the Greens suffered badly in the lower house, close to a wipe out. This is a major indicator of the rejection of hate and division.

The Liberals

Why then did this rejection of hate and division not transfer to votes for The Liberals? After all Labor struggled to control the Palestinian/Jewish conflict issue within it’s own ranks. The non-transference of votes to The Liberals is more to do with long developing institutional problems within the Liberal Party than to do with Labor or the Greens.

The Liberal’s near annihilation at this election has been a long time coming. At the 2022 election, in losing government, the Liberals secured only 48 seats. (plus, 10 Nationals for a Coalition total of 58) At this 2025 election the Liberals look like holding only around 25 seats. (That’s out of a total of 150 seats in the lower house) This is the result of a rotted and rotting institutional structure of the Liberal Party. This is probably irreversible, although many will try a recovery. But remember that the Liberal Party in Western Australia was in government in 2017 but by 2021 held just 2 lower house seats. Political parties however seemingly entrenched can and do die, just like once dominant businesses die. Does anyone remember Kodak?

Effectively we’d have to say that the Liberals made themselves irrelevant in this election. In trying to stand for everything they thought was ‘middle ground,’ they stood for nothing. My assessment is that Liberals only retained a base vote because of their legacy brand. They offered nothing to the swing voter of substance so on the ‘least liked’ scale they became somewhat ‘mushy.’

The Labor Party

The Labor Party did a great job of neutralising hate and division in difficult circumstances. Within the Labor machine there exists a wide spectrum of Marxists/socialist who seek to use Labor to destroy capitalism. Then there’s the soft socialist who seek to bring a kinder, more caring face to capitalism. The tensions between these forces are complex. But in this election Labor had the added complexity of internal pro-Palestinian agitators bursting out into anti-Jew positioning. Somehow these tensions were managed. Much credit for that must surely go to Labor leader and PM Anthony Albanese. Surely, he is a wily political fox. And that’s a compliment!

On the hate and division issue Labor successfully positioned itself against hate and division. They didn’t do this by shouting from rooftops. They quietly went about the business of hosing down where they could hate and division. And again, this is probably much to do with the style and personality of Anthony Albanese.

On the swing voter ‘least liked’ scale, the election outcome seems to show that Labor was ‘disliked the least’ by a very large margin. Much of that is a result I say, from Labor’s rejection of the hate and division that many were seeking to whip up in this election.

Has hate/division gone?

What I’ve offered here is just one overview perspective of the election outcome. I think its valid. But don’t for a minute think that the hate and division people have gone away. I’ll provide some additional analysis in a future Substack.