Election 2022: Polling booths where Australians won’t change how they vote

New data has revealed there are 3218 booths across Australia where Aussie voters have not changed the party they support for the past 18 years. See where they are.

The candidates and leaders change, the policies come and go, but for hundreds of thousands of rusted-on Australian voters, nothing will convince them to change the party they support.

A detailed analysis of 11,118 polling booth results by News Corp has identified 3218 booths across Australia where the result has been the same at every election for the past 18 years.

Like long-suffering football supporters, these loyal voters checked the same box on their ballot papers at every one of the last eight federal elections, regardless of whether their team was flying high, or far behind when the final siren sounded.

And if they’re Labor voters, they’ve stuck with their party through a significant losing streak, with the ALP winning majority Government just once since 2004, when Kevin Rudd prevailed in 2007.

Julia Gillard was only able to form Government in 2010 with the help of three independents and the Greens.

Mackay, North Queensland resident Deborah Green is a Labor ‘true believer’. Picture: Duncan Evans

NSW has the most rusted-on booths – 1246 in total – while the next most populous state, Victoria, has 851.

Western Australia has 437, followed by South Australia with 405, Queensland with 101, Tasmania with 99, the ACT with 55, and the Northern Territory with 24.

Central Queensland’s political landscape is in a state of flux, with an increasing number of voters packing up from the major parties and leaving for independent territory.

Across Dawson in 2019, One Nation, the United Australia Party, the Greens and Katter’s Australia Party accounted for 28.8 per cent of the first preference vote.

The figures mirror those in neighbouring Capricornia and Flynn.

Deborah Green, however, is a Dawson ‘true believers’, a loyal voter who refuses to budge and shop around.

In her case, it’s Labor or death.

When asked whether she had ever voted for anything other than the Labor Party, she said “no.”

Asked whether she had even considered voting for anything other than Labor, she again replied: “no.”

Just as Mrs Green will stick to Labor, Bowen Basin miner Heath McPherson will stick with the LNP.

Speaking outside his house opposite the Mackay West booth, Mr McPherson said he didn’t believe the Labor Party could protect the interests of miners.

His wife Peta, an early childhood teacher, will also likely stick with the LNP this time around.

She once voted Labor many years ago, but switched to the LNP and has stayed with the blue since.

“I think they’re doing a good job at the moment,” she said.

Heath and Peta McPherson with children Eden and Beau. Picture: Duncan Evans.

Few people would bet against the electorate of Melbourne returning Greens leader Adam Bandt for a fourth straight term in May. Younger, more educated, less religious and increasingly childless, Melbourne is not only the one safe Greens seat in Australia, it is the only Greens seat in the House of Representatives.

“All my mates would vote Greens,” barista Benny Mazzetti, 23 and from Collingwood, said.

“We’re a sustainable area and people are conscious of their carbon footprint – it’s cool to be thinking about that,” he said.

In the regional NSW seat of Hunter, a Labor seat since 1910, 15 booths across the electorate have voted the same way for 18 years – for Labor. One small booth, at a fire station on McDonalds Rd in the township of Polkobin voted for the Nationals – unsuccessfully – at every election since 2004.

Cessnock local Sharon James, 52, said she would be voting Labor as she had at every election since she turned 18.

Ms James said she supported Labor even when she disagreed with their policies, such as during the period in the early 2000s when thousands of asylum seekers arrived into Australia on boats from Indonesia.

“That was not enough to make me change my vote,’’ she said.

Greens leader and member for Melbourne Adam Bandt.

Member for Hunter Joel Fitzgibbon who has quit politics.

Veteran MP Joel Fitzgibbon, who inherited the seat from his father Eric in 1996, is retiring, and Labor has parachuted in a star candidate in local Olympic shooter Dan Repacholi. His main challenger is the Nationals’ candidate, Maitland Christian School community relations officer James Thomson.

The rusty booth of Christies Beach in South Australia, home to a majority of middle aged caucasian Aussies, many have been left unconvinced with the leadership of the Morrison Government and the future promises of the opposition.

The booth, which has always had strong ties to the Labor Party, winning the last federal election by a comfortable 35 per cent, looks to retain their strong seat.

However, for former real estate agent Joan Green, 70, she believes the entire country needs a shake up and only Clive Palmer’s party can do so.

“He (Palmer) will be the best one for Australia because he believes in freedom,” Mrs Green said.

“That’s the way to go … I have always been a Labor person but my son has been forced to get the jab and I think it’s wrong what they have done to people and I don’t want nothing to do with the two parties.”

United Australia Party’s Clive Palmer.

Voters in some of the Northern Territory’s most recalcitrant booths are showing no signs of swinging leading up to the federal election.

The NT News surveyed voters of five of the Territory’s most “rusted on” booths. All four had voted for the same party for five subsequent elections.

In Solomon, Nightcliff Middle School and Nakara Primary School have voted for Labor every year since Kevin Rudd came to power in 2007, while the booth at Parap’s After School Care centre has preferred the Country Liberals.

Meanwhile, Lingiari voters in Berry Springs and Howard Springs show no sign of ditching the CLP.

COOL TO VOTE GREEN

COLLINGWOOD, Fitzroy and Carlton might have once been synonymous with working class Australia, but few people would bet against the electorate of Melbourne returning Greens leader Adam Bandt for a fourth straight term in May.

Younger, more educated, less religious and increasingly childless, Melbourne is not only the one safe Greens seat in Australia, it is the only Greens seat in the House of Representatives.

It’s a significant shift for an electorate that for more than 100 years was held by the Labor Party, including icons of the labour movement, such as former leader Arthur Calwell.

On Gertrude St, one of Melbourne’s oldest streets, now home to some of the city’s most expensive shops and bars and Melbourne’s Pride Festival, barista Benny Mazzetti said it’s cool to vote Greens.

“All my mates would vote Greens,” Mr Mazzetti, 23 and from Collingwood said.

“We’re a sustainable area and people are conscious of their carbon footprint — it’s cool to be thinking about that.”

Mr Mazzetti is also the co-founder of a start-up called Barista Brix, which turns old coffee grinds into flammable bricks that can be used in fireplaces.

Mr Mazzetti, who works at Gabriel cafe, said he also supported the Greens’ push to decriminalise drugs and said that few people who worked at his cafe would drive a car.

Greens seat of Melbourne

SCOMO HAS DONE A GOOD JOB

ANNITA Medhurst has voted Liberal for the past 15 to 20 years and has no intention to change this election.

She has lived in Brighton in the Lyons electorate for the past three years and acknowledges that a majority of the town’s voters supported Labor at the 2019 federal election.

“I vote Liberal because I think they work harder for the people and are more family oriented,” Ms Medhurst said.

“I definitely won’t vote Labor – they are too busy back-stabbing – and I can’t see them doing any better anyway.

“I think Scott Morrison has done a good job and I was very said to see (Tasmanian Liberal Premier) Peter Gutwein go.

“We had to eventually open our borders and he kept us safe.”

Ms Medhurst, 62, who is on long service leave from her job working as a waste management driver, said her husband also was a Liberal voter.

She was not aware of who was standing for the Liberal Party against the sitting Labor member Brian Mitchell.

Annita Medhurst is a fan of Scott Morrison. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Australian Electoral Commission figures show that on a two-party preferred vote at the Brighton polling booth in 2019, Mr Mitchell received 62.52 per cent support with Jessica Whelan who was disendorsed by the Liberals but whose name remained on the ballot paper receiving 37.48 per cent.

Of the 2364 votes at Brighton 147 were recorded as informal.

Ms Medhurst, who has two adult daughters and four grandchildren, doesn’t ask her neighbours how they intend to vote.

She is a big fan of Mr Morrison.

“He’s an honest bloke and very down to earth.

“He and the Liberals do what they say they are going to do.

“In the budget he acted on the price of petrol and cost of living.

“I know that interest rates will go up by I can live with that. I don’t ask or talk to other people about politics.”

LABOR TO THE CORE

The federal electorate of Hunter has been in Labor hands since 1910.

The NSW regional seat has long had coalmining at its heart, although tourism and wine production have brought new jobs and new people into the electorate.

A rock-solid Labor majority has been whittled down to 3 per cent at the last election, but voting Labor remains a family tradition passed down the generations.

A News Corp analysis of voting patterns shows 16 booths across the electorate have voted the same way for 18 years. Unsurprisingly, 15 of those booths voted Labor.

One small booth, at a fire station on McDonalds Rd in the township of Polkobin, bucked the trend and voted for the Nationals – unsuccessfully – at every election since 2004.

Veteran MP Joel Fitzgibbon, who inherited the seat from his father Eric in 1996, is retiring, and Labor’s decision to parachute in star candidate, local Olympic shooter Dan Repacholi, has pleased voters but upset Labor branch members, some of who have vowed to either stand as independents, or support independents, in the May poll.

Barber Steff Gil with client Ellis Lei in the main street of Cessnock. Labor has been elected in the seat of Hunter since 1910. Picture: Ryan Osland

In the town of Cessnock, four booths never wavered from a Labor win – the booths at Cessnock High School, Cessnock East PublicSchool, the North Cessnock Community Hall and Cessnock West Public School.

Barber Steff Gill, aka the Hairy Scotsman, has voted Labor since arriving in Cessnock a decade ago, in local, state and federal elections.

“I’ve always been a Labor voter, in Scotland as well,’’ the 50-year-old said.

“My home town (of Dumbarton) was very like Cessnock. When I turned 18 my mum was like ‘well you’ll be voting Labor’ – we are Labor people and we vote Labor.’’

Mr Gill said he talked to his customers when they came in for haircuts, and many were temporary workers in the coal mines.

“They haven’t got the stability and they need someone to stand up for them,’’ he said.

Ellis Lei, 29, has voted Labor “pretty much since I turned 18.’’

“To begin with it was who my family voted for,’’ he said.

“Then as I got older I found I sided with Labor views.’’

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– Additional reporting Duncan Evans, Emily Jarvis, Hugo Timms, Thomas Morgan, Sue Bailey