What we're all really googling before the election

More people are searching for the United Australia Party than for the Liberal Party.

More people are searching for the United Australia Party than for the Liberal Party.

Labor costings, the remixed Liberal Party ad, Anthony Albanese “walking out” and Scott Morrison tackling a child -- these are the key topics on the minds, and in the Google search bar, of Australians just days out from casting their vote.

Australians are most interested in the Labor Party and United Australia Party, with searches about each of them over the last seven days rising by 33 and 24 per cent respectively, while the Liberal Party saw a modest 14 per cent increase in interest according to Google trends analysed by The Australian.

But Scott Morrison was leagues ahead of other leaders, with a massive 62 per cent rise in searches about the Prime Minister over the last week, compared to 18 per cent about Anthony Albanese, 8 per cent about One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and 4 per cent about Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce.

The main topic searched for regarding the Labor Party was costings, with phrases including “labor costing”, “labor election costings” and “labor party costing” jumping by between 950 and 1,600 per cent in the week leading up to the Opposition revealing its election commitments would cost the budget bottom line an additional $7.4 billion.

Australians were also interested in who was responsible for the Party’s costings, with the phrase “parliamentary budget office” rising by more than 2,300 per cent.

The top questions entered into the search engine regarding the Opposition included “How to vote Labor?”, “When was Labor last in power Australia?”, “Will Labor win?” and “What does the Labor Party stand for?” 

This was compared to questions about the Liberals which also included what the party stood for and how long it had been in power. 

Mr Albanese’s hasty exit from Wednesday’s press conference while journalists followed him out was noticed by voters, with the sentence “Anthony Albanese walks out” featuring as a key phrase. 

Meanwhile, Mr Morrison’s performance against journalist Tracey Grimshaw on Current Affair, who challenged his assertion on Wednesday that he had “saved the country” given he had frequently dodged responsibility and failed to get vaccines soon enough, dominated searches about the Prime Minister. 

Covid-19 and the strength of the Australian dollar were the main issues voters Googled about, followed by taxes and floods.

Liberal Party ads evidently made their mark on voters, given the term “new liberal party ad” rose by more than 800 per cent in the past seven days.

It follows a number of campaigns launched by the Coalition, including a remix of the tune “there’s a hole in your Budget, dear Labor, dear Labor” and an animated video of Anthony Albanese depicted as Gollum.

The digital campaigns are expected to explode in coming days after the TV and radio blackout began on 12.01am Thursday. 

According to Meta’s ad library report, Labor has spent more than $145,000 in the last day alone, which is part of a greater $1.6 million spent across Facebook on Instagram that has outstripped the Liberal spend on the platforms almost five to one. 

University of Queensland political scientist Glenn Kefford said the difference of spend was “surprising” and that questions could be asked after the election about the Coalition’s budget for its social media spend.