Education a key factor in Australia general election result, according to ANU researchers

Canberra: Younger and educated voters played a significant role in the Labour Party's victory in Australia's May 21 general election, a new survey revealed on Monday.

Labour Party leader Anthony Albanese claimed victory in the general election, ending the conservative coalition's nine-year reign down under, reported Xinhua news agency.

In the survey, researchers from Australian National University (ANU) viewed voters' age and their education as the major factors in Labour's victory and a collapse in support for the coalition.

"More than one in three voters aged under 55, 34.9 per cent, who voted for the Coalition in 2019 ended up voting for someone else. Around one in five, 21.1 per cent, aged 55 or older did the same," Nicholas Biddle, co-author of the report, said in a statement.

"The coalition also lost more votes among people with higher levels of education. Around one in three people, 31.0 per cent, who had completed year 12 and voted for the coalition in 2019 voted for another party in 2022,” according to the survey.

"Education, and particularly high school education, really matters when it comes to understanding this election result," he added.

Biddle said the survey also found voters were more optimistic about the direction of the country under the Albanese government, with 73.3 percent of respondents either satisfied or very satisfied in May, up from 62.4 per cent in April.

"In fact, this is one of the highest levels of satisfaction we have seen since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and the black summer bushfires of 2019/2020," he said.

"In contrast, levels of satisfaction in April 2022 were some of the lowest, if not the lowest, we've seen over the same period."