Voting for a minor party isn’t a dead-end, according to young Australians who are planning on using their first preference to be heard, not just counted.
When university student 23-year-old Alex Ashton heads to the ballot box on May 3, she’s not thinking about party partisanship, she says she is thinking about survival.
“It’s so expensive for young people to even dream about buying a house, paying off HECS, or feeling financially stable,” she said.
“No politician I’ve seen is really committing to fixing that.”
For young voters in Australia faith in the two major parties has all but collapsed, facing a cost-of-living crisis, housing un-affordability, and ballooning student debt.
But unlike the stereotype of disillusioned young voters drifting from politics, Alex and others are doing the opposite, they’re voting tactically and disruptively.
Instead of pledging allegiance to Labor or the Coalition, an increasing number of young voters are casting their first preference votes for minor parties and independents. Not because they expect these candidates to win, but because they understand exactly how Australia’s preferential voting system works, and they’re using it send a message.
In the 2019 Federal Election, younger voters broke away from decades of electoral tradition, with voters under 30 turning away from giving their primary vote to either of the two major parties.
Younger voters’ primary votes were split far more evenly across minor parties and independents. Nearly 40 per cent of 18–24-year-olds gave their first preference to the Greens, independents, or other minor parties, a proportion that steadily declines with age.
Source: Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), 2022 Federal Election results
Among voters aged 18–24, only 15 per cent gave their primary vote to the Liberal Party.
In contrast, voters aged 65 and over overwhelmingly backed the Coalition, with 55 per cent voting Liberal and only 2 per cent choosing the Greens
The data points to an emerging generational divide, not just in who young Australians vote for, but how they vote.
Under Australia’s preferential voting system, a first preference vote for a minor party is not a wasted vote. If that candidate is knocked out, the vote “flows” to the next preference listed, often one of the major parties.
Young voters are very aware of that and are choosing not to play by the two-party rules.
University of Wollongong student Georgia Walsh, 23, said she wanted to send a clear message.
“I’m voting Greens, because we have a preferential voting system that allows me to safely vote for a minor party and not have my vote wasted,” she said.
The data supports her strategy. Over the past two decades, the percentage of minor party preferences flowing to Labor from 18 to 24-year-old voters has skyrocketed.
Source: Sarah Cameron and Ian McAllister. 2023. Australian Election Study Interactive Data.
In 1996, only around 40 per cent of minor party preferences from young voters flowed to Labor. By 2019, that figure had jumped to over 80 per cent.
The Liberal-National Coalition, by comparison, has seen their share of minor party preferences among young voters collapse to nearly zero.
This shift reveals something deeper, young voters are deliberately weaponising their minor party votes to favour progressive parties like Labor.
“This means I can increase the primary vote share which gives minor parties more public funding and forces major parties to pay attention to their policies, so they don’t lose votes next time,” Georgia said.
“I care about the longevity of the environment. Free dental and other specialist services. Increased access to housing affordability, student welfare and debt policies, including changes made to HECS.
“It’s not just me. Younger voters are progressively voting for independents and smaller parties so that bigger parties notice and shift their policy platforms to address the scariest issues facing young voters like me.”
The most recent 2022 Federal Election reinforced this generational change in attitudes to voting, showing how minor party preferences flow differently across age groups.
Source: Sarah Cameron and Ian McAllister. 2023. Australian Election Study Interactive Data.
The data shows that for voters aged 18–24, around 70 per cent of minor party preferences flowed to Labor, with only 17 per cent going to the Coalition. Among older age groups, the split is far more even.
For voters over 65, Labor received only 34 per cent of minor party preferences, while the Coalition captured over 40 per cent.
This could mean Labor may owe its electoral edge not just to primary votes, but to the quiet support of strategic minor party voters, especially young ones.
“The reality is the two major candidates right now don’t actually understand the pressures put onto young Australians today. When they were 20, owning a house for them within the next 10 years wasn’t a pipe dream at all. It was something quite attainable,” Miss Ashton said.
“Not even hard work can get you there now. This is why people are choosing to cast their first preference votes alternatively.”
This erosion of trust is reflected in party identification data across the country.
According to the Australian Election Study, the proportion of voters who say they “always vote for the same party” has fallen from over 70 per cent in the 1960s to just 40 per cent today, and that number is even lower among people under 30.
Australians go to the polls on May 3.