Australia's First-Term Election Battle Heats Up

Now that an election has been called, Australian voters will go to the polls on May 3 to decide the fate of the first-term, centre-left Australian Labor Party government led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

In Australia, national elections are held every three years. The official campaign period only lasts for around a month.

This time around, Albanese will be seeking to hold onto power after breaking Labor's nine-year dry spell by beating the more right-leaning Liberal Party, led by Scott Morrison, in 2022.

Now, he's up against the Liberals' new leader, a conservative with a tough guy image, Peter Dutton. It's looking like a tight race.

So how do elections work in Australia, who's contesting for the top spot and why is the race looking so close?

For Albanese, the honeymoon is over

Albanese was brought into power in 2022 on the back of dissatisfaction with the long-term and scandal-prone Liberal-National Coalition government.

At the time, he was considered personally more competent, warm and sensible than Morrison .

Unfortunately for Albanese, the dissatisfaction and stress about the cost of living hasn't gone away.

Governments in Australia almost always win a second term . However, initially high levels of public support have dissipated over the first term. Opinion polls are pointing to a close election , though Albanese's approval ratings have had a boost in recent weeks.

At the heart of what makes this such a tight contest are issues shared by many established democracies: the public's persistent sense of economic hardship in the post-pandemic period and longer-term dissatisfaction with "politics as usual", combined with an increased focus on party leaders .

Around the world, incumbents have faced challenges holding onto power over the past year, with voters sweeping out the Conservatives in the United Kingdom and the Democrats in the United States.

Australia has faced some similar economic challenges, such as relatively high inflation and cost-of-living problems.

Likewise, Australia - like many other established democracies - has long-term trends of dissatisfaction with major parties and the political system itself.

However, this distaste with "business as usual" manifests differently in Australia from comparable countries such the UK and US.

Australia's voting system

In Australia, voting is compulsory, and those who fail to turn out face a small fine. Some observers have argued this pushes parties to try to persuade "swing" voters with more moderate policies, rather than rely on their faithful "bases" and court those with more extreme views who are more likely to vote.

In the UK, by comparison, widespread public distaste with the Conservatives, combined with low turnout and first-past-the-post voting, delivered Keir Steirmer's Labour Party a dramatic victory. This was despite a limited uptick in support.

And in the US, turnout in the 2024 election was only about 64% . Donald Trump and the Republicans swept to power last year by channelling a deep anti-establishment sentiment among those people who voted.

And the country is now so polarised, that the more strongly identifying Democrat and Republican voters who do turn out to vote can't see eye to eye on highly emotionally charged issues which dominate the parties' platforms. Independent voters are left without "centrist" options.

Because Australia's voting system is different, Dutton is unlikely to follow Trump's far-right positioning too closely, despite dabbling in the " anti-woke " culture wars.

It also explains why Albanese's personal style is usually quite mild-mannered and why he's unlikely to present himself as a radical reformer.

However, neither man's approach has made them wildly popular with the public. This means neither can rely on their own popularity to win over the public.

Another factor making Australia distinct is that voters rank their choices, with their vote flowing to their second choice if their first choice doesn't achieve a majority. This means many races in the 150-seat lower house of parliament are won from second place.

Similarly, seats in the Senate (Australia's second chamber, with the power to amend or block legislation) are won based on the proportion of votes a party receives in each state or territory. This gives minor parties and independents a better chance at winning seats compared to the lower house.

This means dissatisfaction with the major parties has in recent years created space for minor parties and a new crop of well-organised independents to get elected and influence policy. In 2022, around one-third of voters helped independents and minor parties take seats off both the Liberals and Labor in the inner cities.

To win government, Dutton will need to get them back, or take more volatile outer-suburban seats off Labor.

The big policy concerns

Against this backdrop, Australian voters both in 2022 and today have a fairly consistent set of policy concerns. And while parties want to be seen addressing them, their messaging isn't always heard.

The 2022 Australian Election Study , run by Australian political researchers, revealed that pessimism about the economy and concerns about the cost of living were front of mind when Australians voted out the Liberal-National Coalition government last federal election.

This time around, one might think some relative improvement in economic factors like unemployment and cuts to interest rates would put a spring in the prime minister's step .

However, the public is still very concerned about the day-to-day cost-of-living pressures and practical issues such as access to health care.

The government's policy efforts in this direction - for example, tax cuts and subsidies for power bills - have so far not strongly cut through .

What have the major parties promised?

Comparing the parties' platforms, Labor is firmly focused on economic and government service issues to support people in the short term.

Although expected to announce the election earlier, Albanese was handed the opportunity of delivering an extra budget by a tropical storm in early March. This included spending promises foreshadowed earlier, as well as a new modest tax cut as an election sweetener .

In the longer term, Labor has promised significant incentives to improve access to free doctor's visits and focused on investments in women's health , as well as technological infrastructure .

Labor is also encouraging more people to fill skill shortages through vocational education and promising to make the transition to renewable energy , while simultaneously supporting local manufacturing .

The Coalition, for its part, has been critical of these long-term goals and promised to repeal the newly legislated tax cuts in favour of subsidies for petrol. It has focused its message on reduced government spending , while strategically mirroring promises on health to avoid Labor attacks on that front.

Dutton has also proposed cuts to migration to reduce housing pressures and a controversial plan to build nuclear power plants at the expense of renewables.

Will these differences in long-term plans cut through? Or are people focused on short-term, hip-pocket concerns?

This election, whatever the result, will not represent a long-term shifting of loyalties, but rather a precarious compact with distrustful voters looking for relief in uncertain times.

Pandanus Petter is employed at the Australian National University with funding from the Australian Research Council.