‘Australia’s election shows how compulsory voting rewards progressive governments that deliver’

In last Saturday’s Australian election, Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Party (ALP) bucked the global anti-incumbency trend, decisively defeating Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberals to win a second term in power.

This result is primarily a vindication of Albanese’s record of delivering on progressive policy: since taking office in 2022, his government has combined a cautious approach to public spending with ambitious policies on climate, housing, and employment rights designed to boost growth and living standards. These reforms have paid off: the Australian economy is growing, unemployment has been consistently low, and real wages have begun to steadily rise.

Now, Albanese has reaped the electoral reward: the ALP significantly increased its share of both votes and seats, with polls suggesting particularly high scores amongst working-age sections of the electorate.

Albanese’s ability to capitalise on his successful progressive record was aided by the context in which he was operating. Many commentators have highlighted his opponents’ mistakes: under Dutton’s leadership, the Liberals shifted sharply to the right, allowing Labor to associate them in voters’ minds with the unpopularity of Donald Trump. Above all however, Albanese’s victory was the product of Australia’s long-standing system of compulsory voting.

‘Australia’s turnout rates mean the composition of the electorate tracks the wider population’

Since 1924, it is been compulsory for every eligible Australian to cast a ballot in federal elections, and those who fail to do so are required either to provide a valid excuse, or to pay a AUS$20 fine. Because of this system, Australian elections see extremely high levels of turnout – including amongst demographics who in other countries tend to be much less likely to vote, such as younger people, renters, and those on lower incomes.

Here in the UK for instance, surveys conducted after the last general election found huge disparities in turnout rates on the basis of class, age, and housing tenure – most strikingly, over 65s were almost twice as likely to vote as under 25s, and homeowners were almost twice as likely to vote as renters. The result is that we have an unrepresentative electorate, which is older, richer, and more secure than the British public at large.

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By contrast, in Australia, turnout rates of around 90% mean that the composition of the electorate closely tracks that of the wider population. Thus renters (who make up over 30% of Australian households) constitute a highly significant voting bloc, while almost half of the electorate is under 45.

Crucially, it was these kinds of voters who provided decisive support to the ALP: many of Labor’s gains were in seats with high proportions of renters, and polls show that while the Liberals had the support of most over 65s, working-age voters broke decisively for Labor. This makes sense: whereas retirees are largely insulated from the real economy, it is primarily working-age people who benefit from the rising wages, economic growth, and low unemployment delivered by Albanese’s progressive policies, and renters who most stand to gain from new housing.

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‘A tried-and-tested method to reduce turnout inequalities’

By ensuring such demographics were well-represented within the Australian electorate, compulsory voting enabled Albanese to benefit from his successful record of delivery, and so played a key role in ensuring his re-election. Without it, it is unclear if the ALP would have been able to overcome the Liberals’ dominance amongst older, more insulated voters.

Here in the UK, we have all too often seen an opposite set of dynamics play out: low and unequal turnout, and the resulting dominance of our electorate by older, wealthier homeowners, repeatedly made it easier for Conservative governments throughout the 2010s to be re-elected, despite delivering rising housing costs, non-existent wage growth, and persistent economic stagnation. Going forward, low turnout amongst renters and working-age voters could make it hard for progressive governments that do deliver housing, jobs, investment, and economic growth to reap much electoral benefit. Instead, UK governments risk being judged primarily on how far they protect the interests of elderly homeowners.

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However, Australia shows clearly how these problem can be overcome: compulsory voting on the Australian model offers a tried-and-tested method of boosting turnout, reducing turnout inequalities, and removing biases in the composition of the electorate.

Compulsory voting has previously been advocated in the UK by leading Labour figures including former cabinet ministers David Blunkett and Peter Hain, former deputy leader Tom Watson, and former First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford.

Today, if Labour members in Britain hope to see progressive governments electorally rewarded for delivering on housing, investment, jobs and growth like Albanese and the ALP have been, they should renew the push for the introduction of Australian-style compulsory voting for general elections in the UK.

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