Our post election research examines what influenced people’s vote, when decisions were made and what people think about key policies and the campaign.
The JWS Research 2025 post election survey report is now available online. Also now available is our related special release report on election policies and the re-elected Labor Government’s second term.
Australian Financial Review political editor Phil Coorey has covered some of the key angles in his recent reporting:
- Vote magnet: Albanese eclipsed previous leaders’ popularity
- Labor claims mandate for super tax half of voters didn’t know existed
Further related news coverage citing our research data can also be found in some thought provoking pieces published by the ABC’s national political lead David Speers, News Ltd’s national pollical editor Clare Armstrong and The Australian’s policy editor Tom Dusevic:
- Anthony Albanese has rare opportunity to make reforms after Coalition split
- Aussies want Labor to tackle big tax reform
- If not now, when will Labor ever use its political capital?
The post election policy-oriented analysis offers a series of insights about the Labor Government’s key agenda items and the potential for economic and fiscal reform.
The public overwhelmingly agrees (81%) that the Albanese Government should use this term to tackle some of the more difficult and complex reforms needed to grow the economy and balance the federal budget. Enthusiasm for this policy objective is evidenced by the proportion who strongly agree (48%) being even higher than the number who somewhat agree (33%).
Public appetite for the Government to embrace a degree of difficulty is also reflected in the solid endorsement of Treasurer Jim Chalmers public comments straight after the election that the Government would prioritise improving Australia’s productivity during this term of office. 61% agree with the approach of putting a higher focus on productivity during the second term.
The community’s starting receptivity to difficult policy tasks in the wake of Labor’s strong win is also reflected in their attitude to broad based tax reform as a policy concept. Despite the inevitability of trade offs in any sweeping tax system reform, there is solid majority backing for it in the public domain (56% support) and very low levels of opposition (7% oppose).
Looking at the election wash up overall, cost of living (32%) and energy (25%) were the leading influences on voters in 2025, followed by party leadership and candidates (18%), housing affordability (17%, with a higher 27% among 18-34 year olds) and healthcare (17%). These were also the top five influences among people who voted in support of a preferred party.
Vote drivers also varied by party, with immigration and economic management among the leading influences for Coalition voters, healthcare an above-average influence for Labor voters and climate change and the environment and energy leading among Greens voters.
While US President Donald Trump does make it into the top 16 things that influenced voters it does only just make it in at number 14. This data contrasts with some of the commentary that Trump and the world news around US tariffs significantly changed the dynamics of the election for most people. Indeed these survey findings caution against overstating the influence of Donald Trump on the election. Crime also does not look to have been a big a factor either (only 3% nominated it as a key influence and even for Coalition voters this number was just 5%).
The post election data shows that clear policy drivers of Labor’s decisive victory were two of their big policy commitments in the health portfolio. Improving bulk billing rates by incentivising GPs and listing more medicines on the PBS to cost no more than $25 a script both get support of almost three quarters of Australians (72% apiece). Public awareness for both these policy offerings was also strong. Extending the energy bill rebate (60% support and 64% awareness) and the two-year income tax cut (59% support and 53% awareness) are also popular moves and fairly well-known parts of the Government’s agenda.
Notably, there are some policies where public awareness of the commitment is relatively solid but the actual level of overall support for these policies is significantly more modest. There are also a number of the Labor Government’s policies that fail to secure overall majority support. Our special report on government and crossbench policies for this parliamentary term contains all the details.
Our survey shows most votes were cast within the final week of the campaign (32%, up from 24% in 2022) or on election day itself (39%, compared with 43% in 2022). A significantly higher proportion of Labor voters voted in the last week (35%, up from 26% in 2022), while similar to 2022 almost half (47%) of 18-34 year olds left their vote until election day.
Around one in four voters (26%) did not decide who they were voting for until the final week of the campaign, including 16% who did not decide until the last couple of days or election day, higher among 18-34 year olds (37% and 22%, respectively).
Similar to previous federal elections, voters had mixed views of the 2025 campaign. While a majority rated it as important (63%, up from 56% in 2022) and relevant (51%), they also largely dismissed it as the ‘same old stuff’ (59%, up from 51%).
Voters saw the campaign in more of a negative light than positive across a range of other attributes, describing it as forgettable (45%, up from 39%), deceitful (44%), unengaging and too long (43% for each), boring (41%), negative (39%) and economically irresponsible (38%).
Similar to our regular True Issues series, the 2025 post election survey and its two reports constitute a research tool to assist Australian governments, businesses and organisations understand what went on beneath the headline results of the recent federal election and appreciate voter thinking within the contemporary issues landscape. This poll was conducted as an online survey between 6 May and 9 May 2025 among a representative national sample of 1,000 Australians aged 18+ years.
