Latest news with #anti-Dutton
Sky News AU
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Labor's Tasmania success due to ‘very strong anti-Dutton sentiment'
Incoming Labor MP for Lyons Rebecca White says the Albanese government's success in Tasmania was due to a 'very strong anti-Dutton sentiment'. 'The second reason that I think explains the result in Tasmania was that there was a very strong anti-Dutton sentiment that I was picking up when I was doorknocking, and that was due to the fact that he didn't seem to have a clear plan for Tasmania,' Ms White told Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell. 'There was also concern about the threat of cuts to Medicare and a push for nuclear, which Tasmanians don't see a place for in our state.'
Perth Now
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Perth Now
Federal election 2025: Influencers flag intent to use press blackout in major moves against Coalition
Influencers with a political bent, and a dislike for Peter Dutton, are gearing up in their final push on social media to send their preferred party to parliament ahead of Saturday's vote. The call to arms comes as the content creators have featured significantly in the lead-up to the Federal election, with Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton appearing on the some of the biggest accounts and podcasts in the past month. The latest push is led by Cheek Media's Hannah Ferguson, who has called on her followers to share content which 'keeps Peter Dutton out' as TV and radio advertisements are forced to fall silent in the traditional media blackout starting tonight. 'This is the moment to have influence,' Ferguson said. 'We have a clear three days to distribute as much information as possible that keeps Peter Dutton out.' From midnight, the traditional media blackout begins, which means no political advertising will be allowed on television or radio for three days. That blackout doesn't include other election tools, such as websites, social media, streaming services, robocalls and text messages — newspapers are also exempt. According to Ferguson the blackout was 'crucial' because 'while radio and TV have to fall silent ... our messages, our influence, our impact is far greater and we have clear air to distribute the message we want to share'. 'This is the time to call the disengaged or withdrawn or unsure voters in your life,' she continued. The anti-Dutton message is nothing new from Greens member and teal supporter Ferguson, who says she runs her social media accounts with the aim of engaging Australians in discourse around the news. Cheek Media has 173,000 followers, while Ferguson's personal profile boasts 71,500. She is not alone in taking politics to social media with a number of other platform-users surfacing this year, including influencers like Konrad Benjamin from Punter's Politics, reality-star turned-podcaster Abbie Chatfield, author Trisha Jha, Freya Leach and Joel Jammal. Camera Icon Freya Leach (policy maker at the Liberal-affiliated Menzies Research Centre, Liberal member) Pictured with Peter Dutton. Credit: Freya Leach / Instagram Most of the influencers are left leaning, speaking to young voters on the platforms they use the most — Chatfield and Ferguson have emerged as faces of a national the Greens campaign against the Coalition. Leach and Jammal are the exceptions to the rule, spruiking conservative politics. And with Gen Z and Millennials now making up the most powerful section of voters — there are 7.7 million of them, compared to 5.9 million Baby Boomers and 4.4 million in the Gen X category, according to the Australian Electoral Commission — the major parties have embraced the new wave. The PM and Opposition leader have appeared with the many of the content creators, some of whom were even granted access to the tightly controlled Budget lock-in by the Albanese Government's team. Others have received exclusive and unfettered access to the PM and Opposition leader than major traditional news outlets through long-form interviews, allowing the politicians to show a more personal side. Some of these interviews have faced criticism, namely around 'soft' questions and bias from a sympathetic interviewer, but they say they are not pretending to be impartial journalists. Ferguson says she is 'transparent about her views'. TikTok, Instagram and podcasts have been flooded with election content in the past month, something the blackout period won't stop. These influencers will be able to continuing spreading their message online right up until the close of polls. However, the same goes for political hopefuls and the major parties hoping to harness the online trends to boost their message in a way which feels less like advertising and more like average social media use.
West Australian
30-04-2025
- Politics
- West Australian
Federal election 2025: Influencers flag intent to use press blackout in major moves against Coalition
Influencers with a political bent, and a dislike for Peter Dutton, are gearing up in their final push on social media to send their preferred party to parliament ahead of Saturday's vote. The call to arms comes as the content creators have featured significantly in the lead-up to the Federal election, with Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton appearing on the some of the biggest accounts and podcasts in the past month. The latest push is led by Cheek Media's Hannah Ferguson, who has called on her followers to share content which 'keeps Peter Dutton out' as TV and radio advertisements are forced to fall silent in the traditional media blackout starting tonight. 'This is the moment to have influence,' Ferguson said. 'We have a clear three days to distribute as much information as possible that keeps Peter Dutton out.' From midnight, the traditional media blackout begins, which means no political advertising will be allowed on television or radio for three days. That blackout doesn't include other election tools, such as websites, social media, streaming services, robocalls and text messages — newspapers are also exempt. According to Ferguson the blackout was 'crucial' because 'while radio and TV have to fall silent ... our messages, our influence, our impact is far greater and we have clear air to distribute the message we want to share'. 'This is the time to call the disengaged or withdrawn or unsure voters in your life,' she continued. The anti-Dutton message is nothing new from Greens member and teal supporter Ferguson, who says she runs her social media accounts with the aim of engaging Australians in discourse around the news. Cheek Media has 173,000 followers, while Ferguson's personal profile boasts 71,500. She is not alone in taking politics to social media with a number of other platform-users surfacing this year, including influencers like Konrad Benjamin from Punter's Politics, reality-star turned-podcaster Abbie Chatfield, author Trisha Jha, Freya Leach and Joel Jammal. Most of the influencers are left leaning, speaking to young voters on the platforms they use the most — Chatfield and Ferguson have emerged as faces of a national the Greens campaign against the Coalition. Leach and Jammal are the exceptions to the rule, spruiking conservative politics. And with Gen Z and Millennials now making up the most powerful section of voters — there are 7.7 million of them, compared to 5.9 million Baby Boomers and 4.4 million in the Gen X category, according to the Australian Electoral Commission — the major parties have embraced the new wave. The PM and Opposition leader have appeared with the many of the content creators, some of whom were even granted access to the tightly controlled Budget lock-in by the Albanese Government's team. Others have received exclusive and unfettered access to the PM and Opposition leader than major traditional news outlets through long-form interviews, allowing the politicians to show a more personal side. Some of these interviews have faced criticism, namely around 'soft' questions and bias from a sympathetic interviewer, but they say they are not pretending to be impartial journalists. Ferguson says she is 'transparent about her views'. TikTok, Instagram and podcasts have been flooded with election content in the past month, something the blackout period won't stop. These influencers will be able to continuing spreading their message online right up until the close of polls. However, the same goes for political hopefuls and the major parties hoping to harness the online trends to boost their message in a way which feels less like advertising and more like average social media use.
ABC News
29-04-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Gender 'shaping' federal election as Vote Compass finds gen Z women are deeply progressive
Emma Garvey is voting for the first time at this federal election and her political views are similar to many women her age. She places herself on the left side of politics, drawn to progressive parties and policies. New Vote Compass data shows the majority of women under the age of 29 identify with the political left, creating a gap between them and their male peers. The 18-year-old, like many in her friendship circle, is still weighing up who to vote for, but she does know who she won't be supporting. Emma Garvey from Penrith is preparing to vote in her first federal election. ( ABC News: Billy Cooper ) "I feel like a lot of [my friends] are more anti-Dutton than they are pro-Albanese, like they're more anti-Liberal than they are pro-Labor," she said. "I feel like we've seen [Peter] Dutton trying to bring in that kind of [US President Donald] Trump politics, or the kind of Trump policies. "We've seen what's been happening over there [in the US] … young women are really worried about the risks that can pose to us, especially around women's rights." Stay updated: Catch the latest interviews and in-depth coverage on According to Vote Compass data, 67 per cent of gen Z women identified as left or moderately left, this compared to 52 per cent of women from other generations. While overseas there's been an observed trend of young men drifting to the right, Vote Compass data suggests gen Z men in Australia often consider themselves progressive. Vote Compass found 50 per cent of males under 29 years old described themselves moderately left or left, compared to only 40 per cent of men from other generations. The data comes from a demographically weighted sample of more than 350,000. Gender 'shaping the election debate' In the last two elections, only 26 per cent of gen Z, those born between 1996 and 2012, reported voting for the Coalition, according to the 2022 Australian Election Study. "No other generation records such skewed preferences at similarly early stages of the life course," the study's authors wrote in the report. Female support for the Coalition was at an historic low in 2022, the report found. "The Coalition has never attracted such a low share of the vote overall, but from women in particular," the report said. Photo shows Hannah Ferguson Gen Z are more progressive than previous generations at the same age, with young women sitting furthest left on the political spectrum. Michelle Arrow, a history professor from Macquarie University, said across the world women have been moving to the left, leaving behind their male counterparts. "It's happening across the many western democracies, where women's vote is shifting from a more conservative base, which it was right up until the 1980s and 1990s," she said. "It reflects those broader social shifts that we've seen, more young women are in higher education, women still remain dominant in kind of care professions." The 2022 Australian election was defined by gender issues, but this campaign was different, Professor Arrow said. "[The 2022 election] was defined by allegations around misconduct in Parliament House, the rise of Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins as very powerful young advocates for women, the march for justice," she said. "I think gender is not being discussed as much of a frontline issue as it was in the 2022 campaign … but I think gender is still very much shaping the election debate." Young women 'not recognised' in campaigns Vote Compass data found gen Z women were more likely to be supportive of social and environmental causes when compared to other age groups. Australians under the age of 45, gen Z, and millennial generations now outnumber baby boomers as the largest voting bloc in this election, according to the Australian Electoral Commission. "Young women are not yet recognised as a central or a really important voting category," Professor Arrow said. "We still see a lot of the offerings more broadly in the campaign have been around cost of living relief, rather than things that have been specifically targeted to young women." Young Labor sought to attract new members alongside other parties at University of Wollongong's orientation week. ( ABC News: Billy Cooper ) Young voters can be uninformed or unengaged with the electoral process, a Grifith University study found earlier this year. Almost half of gen Z who did vote in the 2022 federal election said their main reason for doing so was to avoid being fined, the report found. Stella Giacon, 19, is frustrated by the lack of political action on the issues that matter to her, which she admits leads her to "disassociate" from politics. Stella Giacon says she wants to be able to vote for someone who has the best interests of young people in mind. ( ABC News: Billy Cooper ) "I'm extremely concerned about what's going on with our climate … I want to live in a world where polar bears and tigers exist, and I can explain to my children they're real," she said. The University of Wollongong student is frustrated by what she perceives to be a lack of understanding of the serious issues facing young people. "Just look at the problem of student debt, the current living situation for lots of young people," she said. "Rent is extremely high, wages aren't going up at the same rate of as rent, and I think it'd just be great if we could vote for someone who has our best interests in mind as the young people of this country." Read more about the federal election: Want even more? Here's where you can find all our 2025 Professor Arrow believes Labor may have done a better job than the Coalition at appealing to young women this election. "We've seen some male politicians going on to influence the podcasts and trying to engage with younger voters in that way," she said. "We're seeing some kind of missteps from the Coalition's part, which perhaps reflects that they haven't learned the lessons of the 2022 election — most notably, you can see on the back flip around working from home." Emma Garvey doesn't believe the major parties have policies aimed at helping young people. ( ABC News: Billy Cooper ) Ms Garvey believes the major parties can offer much more to young people. "I feel like they're trying to appeal to young voters in general through their use of like TikTok and just jumping on trends randomly," she said. "But I don't think they're doing a lot with policy wise to really connect with them." Vote Compass is an educational tool designed to promote electoral literacy and civic engagement. While not a conventional public opinion poll, Vote Compass responses can be analysed using statistical methods similar to those used in polling to try to adjust for sampling bias. Responses have been weighted by gender, age, education, language, religion, place of residence and past vote to account for the selection effects of the sample, enabling us to make statistical inferences about the Australian population.
The Guardian
25-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Peter Dutton was fired up before the election was called – but has the Coalition wilted in the campaign furnace?
It was 12 January – 75 days before the federal election would be called – and Peter Dutton was literally feeling the heat. As the opposition leader addressed a Liberal party rally from a stuffy room in the Melbourne suburb of Mount Waverley, visible beads of sweat ran down his forehead. Dutton made it through the 38-minute speech, outlining in broad strokes his vision to 'get Australia back on track' while wiping perspiration from his brow with a blue and white checkered handkerchief. It was his first public appearance of 2025, a scene-setter for the election year ahead. The sight of the hard-edged former Queensland cop sweating under the spotlight would prove a striking analogy for the campaign proper, where Dutton appears to have wilted in the election furnace. The campaign has been defined by major shifts on policies, scarce detail on others, outbreaks of ill-discipline, candidate scandals, and signs of a leader sapped of confidence just as his opponent found his. The overall performance has perplexed veteran Coalition strategists, frustrated conservative supporters and deflated some MPs, for whom hopes of forming government after 3 May now appear illusory. 'Perhaps we've been kidding ourselves,' one Liberal source has lamented. Coalition insiders concede Dutton's personal ratings have fallen since Anthony Albanese called the election on 28 March. The opposition leader admitted as much at Tuesday night's leaders' debate, blaming Labor's '$20m' negative ad blitz for dragging down his vote. The Labor machine has executed a ruthless anti-Dutton campaign, mercilessly peddling claims about $600bn nuclear reactors and shuttered Medicare urgent clinics that the Coalition have rejected as bald-faced lies. A week out from polling day the Coalition is not losing hope, adamant its internal research paints a rosier picture about its prospects, including in marginal seats, than the increasingly grim numbers in published national polls. The proportion of undecided voters is still almost 30%, according to some research, making strategists wary of seat-by-seat predictions. 'It is closer than the national polls are suggesting,' one senior source says. In Victoria, the opposition remains confident of winning Aston, Chisholm and McEwen and is growing optimistic about its chances in Goldstein, Hawke and Gorton. The Coalition is banking on gaining Bennelong, Gilmore and Paterson in New South Wales and is hopeful in Brisbane in the Queensland capital and Bullwinkel, Tangney and Curtin in WA. Winning those seats would almost certainly be enough to force Labor into a minority government, an outcome the Coalition might have accepted when Albanese was revelling in an extended political honeymoon after the 2022 election. But it would fall short of the lofty expectations that built internally and externally in the 18 months after the voice to parliament referendum, to a point some MPs returned from the Christmas break believing Dutton could defeat a first-term government for the first time since 1931. There was a view the global inflation crisis – and 13 interest rate rises domestically – would cruel a lacklustre Albanese government just as it had incumbents around the world, including the US and UK. The high-water mark for optimism was in February, when a poll in the Nine newspapers put the Coalition ahead 55-45 on a two-party preferred basis. Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter Some Coalition insiders now believe those numbers were 'illusionary', reflective not of rising support for Dutton, or even anger at Albanese, but rather a general reflection of the mood of a fed-up and financially stressed electorate. The Coalition might have 'stripped a lot of bark' off Labor in the past 18 months, as one veteran conservative strategist put it, but still needed to offer a reason for voters to 'walk across the road to their side'. Just days after Cyclone Alfred forced Albanese to cancel plans for a 12 April election, internal unrest about the Coalition's lack of major economic policies spilled out into the public. Dutton and the shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, brushed off the 'free advice', which was privately dismissed as the predictable grumbling of agitators with personal agendas. Whatever the motives, the series of articles – including one in Guardian Australia – exposed the bare-bones nature of the Coalition's agenda. 'We were told everything was under control. We were told to give them the benefit of the doubt,' one Coalition source said. Ahead of the 25 March budget, the opposition had no centrepiece cost-of-living relief offering; no short-term plan to reduce power prices; no commitment on defence spending. Dutton's budget reply dealt with two of those missing pieces, committing to a 12-month cut to the fuel excise and an east coast gas reserve. A one-off income tax offset of up to $1,200, new first home buyer incentives and a commitment to lift defence spending to 2.5% of GDP over the next five years have also been announced during the campaign. Senior Coalition MPs said the announcements were timed to coincide with voters tuning in to the election debate. Sources confirmed the campaign waited until the past week to pivot to crime and national security because the traditional Coalition strong-suits were unlikely to shift votes. Critics inside and outside the party argue the policies have come too late to be properly explained and understood, particularly given the campaign has overlapped with the Easter and Anzac long weekends. Sign up to Afternoon Update: Election 2025 Our Australian afternoon update breaks down the key election campaign stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion 'I think the flaw in the Coalition campaign was releasing their policies so late. It just puts a lot of pressure on you to punch through the media cycle,' Tony Barry, a former Liberal strategist now working with RedBridge, told ABC's Afternoon Briefing. The dearth of fully formed policy created a vacuum for Labor's negative campaign to shape the election narrative from the start. Dutton also made several unforced errors that distracted from his cost-of-living focus, including declaring he would live at Sydney's Kirribilli House as prime minister and floating, and quickly walking back, referendums on four-year terms, Indigenous recognition and stripping the citizenship of dual nationals. John Roskam, a senior fellow at rightwing thinktank the Institute of Public Affairs, is a respected figure in Liberal circles who has the ear of conservative MPs in Canberra. 'The campaign problems can't be attributed to any one factor, it's a combination of complacency … a failure to develop strong policies, the absence of a cultural agenda and a feeling that the Coalition has been too willing to play safe when in fact a bold and ambitious agenda was what was required,' Roskam said. Of the policies that were announced pre-campaign, some haven't been mentioned (tax deductible lunches), others actively avoided (nuclear power) and others dumped due to their unpopularity. Within a fortnight of the shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, announcing a plan to restrict work-from-home options for public servants, colleagues began privately lobbying for changes amid fears it was being misinterpreted as applying to all workplaces. Labor and its union allies successfully characterised the policy as an attack on working women, a devastating perception for a party attempting to win back female voters. Dutton waited almost five weeks before admitting the policy was a 'mistake' and jettisoning it entirely. He also walked back plans to sack 41,000 public servants, confirming the headcount would instead be reduced through natural attrition and hiring freezes. On Thursday – with more than 1m votes already cast – Dutton seemingly shifted again, confirming all 41,000 of those positions would come from Canberra. Responding to the comments, Albanese said publicly what he has been saying privately since the start of the campaign. 'They are showing, Peter Dutton is showing, that they are just not ready for government,' he said. The sense of optimism among Coalition MPs was palpable as Donald Trump swept to victory at November's US presidential election. Trump had successfully tapped the anger and disillusionment of voters suffering through a cost-of-living crisis, providing what some of Dutton's colleagues viewed as a template for what could be achieved at the forthcoming Australian election. Trump's win over Democrat Kamala Harris was also interpreted as further confirmation of a global rejection of 'wokeness' – a cause also disdained by Dutton. When the Liberal leader stood up in parliament to congratulate Trump on his victory, an air of confidence filled the opposition benches. 'We will make sure that President Trump is not somebody to be scared of,' Dutton said, emphasising the final two words. 'But somebody that we can work very closely with, and that's exactly what we will do.' The 'not somebody to be scared of' remark was a barely concealed reference to Albanese's 2017 admission that Trump 'scares the shit out of me'. Dutton was taunting Albanese, implying that he could not only manage Trump's return but capitalise on it. Five months on, Dutton is trying to distance himself from Trump and Elon Musk, so toxic have parallels with the Maga and Doge agendas become for the Liberal brand. Dutton's remark at the ABC-hosted leaders' debate that he didn't 'know' Trump was a statement of fact. But for some conservatives, it was a further sign of an uncharacteristic timidness, or an aversion to risk, that has crept into Dutton's campaign. Some attribute the safety-first approach to the transfer of power that occurs at each election, where data-led party officials assume greater influence over strategy and messaging. Several sources confirmed reports of friction between Dutton's inner circle and Liberal HQ, led by Andrew Hirst. Whatever the cause, some Liberals and conservative campaigners lament that voters haven't seen 'Dutton be Dutton'. Roskam agrees. 'There is a view [inside the Liberal party] that the public haven't seen the best of Peter Dutton … that he hasn't followed his gut.'
