Monday 12 August 2019

Is Labor doomed to mostly stay in opposition for the rest of this century?

Putting aside the fact that Labor managed to loose the last election (contrary to most peoples expectations), I was reminded today about the rapidly growing over 65 demographic in Australia (15% of the population in 2017, up from 9% in 1977. And projected to comprise 22% of the population by 2057 and to reach 25% of the population by 2097). Combine this with the fact that the two-party preferred breakdown shifts from Labor to NLP with age, and it looks as if it might become increasing difficult for Labor to form government in Australia during the remainder of the 21st century.

Age     two-party vote (%)
         ALP      NLP
18-24    59.5     40.5
25-34    58.5     41.5
35-49    51.5     48.5
50-64    46.0     54.0
65+      39.0     61.0

While the young tend to favor progressive policies and redistribution of wealth, older voters tend to be more conservative and prefer lower taxes. This attitudinal shift tends to occur with age - the same cohort of twenty-something voters that voted "It's Time" for a Labor government in 1972 and the aging baby boomers that mostly voted NLP in the last election. Therefore, it can be expected that as the percentage of over 65s increases, this should boost the overall two-party preferred vote of NLP at Labor's expense.

Another factor that might work in NLP's favour is that as the population ages and once radical social agendas become 'mainstream' they tend to be adopted by the conservative side of politics. Whereas the Labor/Green policies constantly have to be ever more progressive to appeal to their 'base' of young voters.

This also explains why Labor occasionally spruiks the idea of lowering the voting age further -- as these voters would be predominately Labor/Green supporters.

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