Our resident Stats Guy looks at the rise of voters picking independents over the two major parties at past federal elections.
For decades now, the Australian Election Study (AES) has interviewed voters after each federal election.
Some survey questions have been asked since 1967 while others were added later. A look through the longitudinal data reveals a political paradigm shift in Australia.
The 2022 AES shows clearly that the more educated you are, the more likely you are to follow the federal election in any type of media. We also know that Australians have become more educated over recent decades. Does this mean our collective interest in politics is going up? No, our (dis)interest in politics has been remarkably stable over the past three decades.