Highly educated voters spurned ‘unpopular’ Coalition leaders

Just over a quarter of Australians with university degrees voted for the Coalition at the May election, highlighting a challenge for Peter Dutton.

Barnaby Joyce and Scott Morrison in April. Picture: Jason Edwards

Just over a quarter of Australians with university degrees voted for the Coalition at the May election, highlighting Peter Dutton’s challenge in needing to win more support among highly educated professionals.

The Coalition’s support was lowest among people with degrees, attracting just 26.2 per cent of those voters, according to a survey during the campaign from the Australian National University.

The number was barely above that achieved by the Greens, with 24.6 per cent of people who completed university voting for the minor party and 36.5 per cent voting for Labor.

Labor has a similar challenge in needing to win over less educated Australians, with just 27.6 per cent of people who did not complete high school voting for Anthony Albanese.

This compared with 47.1 per cent for the Coalition.

The joint ANUpoll/Comparative Study of Electoral Systems survey of more than 3500 voters showed Scott Morrison and Barnaby Joyce were the least popular leaders of their parties since 1987.

Mr Morrison registered an ave­rage voter rating of 3.6 out of 10, well below the 5.1 he scored at the last election.

Mr Joyce had a rating of three out of 10, lower than the 4.4 registered by his predecessor Michael McCormack at the 2019 election.

ANU professor of political science Ian McAllister said the findings showed Mr Morrison and Mr Joyce were a drag on the Coalition vote. “Both Scott Morrison and Barnaby Joyce were very unpopular, and both were especially not popular with their own voters,” Professor McAllister said.

“We also found Labor leader and new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was moderately popular across the electorate.”

The survey showed cost of living was the biggest concern for voters, followed by aged care.