’Seismic shift’ from major parties defines 2022 election

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Photo: Tracey Nearmy/ANU - Almost one in three voters cast their ballot for minor parties or independent candidates in the 2022 federal election, the highest number in almost 100 years, Australia's largest and longest-running study on elections has found. Led by The Australian National University (ANU) with Griffith University, the 2022 Australian Election Study (AES) also found Anthony Albanese was the most popular party leader since Kevin Rudd in 2007. In contrast, Scott Morrison was found to be the least popular major party leader in the history of the AES, which has been tracking Australians' political opinions since 1987. Study co-author Professor Ian McAllister, from ANU, said the 2022 federal election saw a "large-scale abandonment" of major political parties. "The vote for the two major parties fell to historic lows in the 2022 election. The key beneficiaries of this seismic shift in voting behaviour were the Greens and independent candidates," Professor McAllister said.