What we saw in the Eden-Monaro by-election was a definite swing away from the major parties
Often, the surprises are not found in the big pieces, quite often the real surprises are hidden, deep down in the weeds.
So it was with the Eden-Monaro By-Election of June 2020. Sure, Labor picked up a place by dealing with preference votes, and the Liberals would have won on pure numbers, but the real story here is the Swing.
What is a Swing? Straight from Wikipedia – An electoral swing analysis (or swing) shows the extent of change in voter support, typically from one election to another, expressed as a positive or negative percentage.
The important part here is “change in voter support”
What we saw in the Eden-Monaro by-election was a definite swing away from the major parties, and towards the parties that better aligned with the voters own ideals and politics. In this case, quite a number of people in the electorate appear to support the relaxation of firearms laws, increasing the funding available to rural Australians and relaxing some of the rules around hunting and fishing.
We also appear to be supporting the relaxation of the laws around Hemp and Marijuana.
Some of us want to hear more from some of the quieter voices in our community, what some would call the ‘fringe’ views.
But not all of them…
What does all this tell us? Mostly it tells us that we are a little fed up with the stories and support we get from Canberra, and that we are looking for alternatives that resonate with our internal voices, but also that the majority of us are not so fed up that we won’t ‘throw away our vote’ by voting for an independent or micro-party.
This is Democracy at it’s core, you get to have a say and your say matters.
Not sure I agree with the premise of a large swing away from the major parties. That being said the HEMP party did very well.
What is worrying is the apathy of the electorate demonstrated by the high number of informal votes and even higher number of people not voting.
I’m afraid that we have a electorate that is either lazy and hence vote for the ideology that they have always followed or are disenfranchised for the issues and or have a major distrust of politicians.