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AS the Victorian election trail hits its final month of campaigning, a lot of interesting trends are starting to emerge in terms of learning about what each political party are standing for, according to Google Trends data.
Interestingly, a large number of searchers on Google are pivoting towards learning about the policies of parties who aren’t in power relative to searches relating to the incumbent Labor Government.
Interest over the last two weeks as the run into the state election heats up has largely gone towards the Victorian Liberal Party and the Victorian One Nation branch, while there has been significantly less interest in the Victorian Labor Party and the Victorian Greens.
As you can see from the image above, 53 searches have been made for the Victorian Liberal Party, while 43 searches have been made for One Nation’s Victorian party, the Victorian Labor Party lagging behind on 23 searches and just 15 for the Victorian Greens.
A quick look at the commonly searched queries tell a fascinating tale about what voters are looking at.
Searches for Labor policies do not fall into the top 10 in the most commonly searched query – in fact, it falls as far as 23rd and 27th in the pecking order.
This indicates that, with Labor having been in power for over a decade, voters have come to expect a large number of the party’s policies.
However, with Jess Wilson and the Liberal Party charging into favouritism to take over as Victoria’s new government, there has been more interest in policies, with Liberal policies sitting in 12th position in top queries, but third in rising queries.
With declining interest in Labor and Liberal in favour of alternate parties such as One Nation and the Greens, more and more searchers are taking interest in the policies and candidates both parties are putting out as indicated on the list of top queries over the last two weeks.
In particular, One Nation, who recently released its list of candidates in what looms as its most impactful election yet, currently has its policies sitting in fourth position in top queries over the last two weeks, while candidates sit directly behind in fifth, and first and second on its rising queries list.
The Greens’ policies also sit high up on the list in terms of policy searches as well, sitting seventh in top queries and first and fifth on rising queries searches.
With the potential for this election to be one of Victoria’s most volatile in its history, expect plenty more to come in terms of what voters are looking for in the next few weeks.
