10.4225/03/590aa69f10511
Betts, Katharine
Katharine
Betts
People and parliamentarians: the great divide
Monash University
2017
Australia
Parliamentarians
journal article
1039-4788
Public opinion
monash:64033
Federal elections
1959.1/480481
2017-05-04 03:57:17
Journal contribution
https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/journal_contribution/People_and_parliamentarians_the_great_divide/4969331
Most candidates for federal elections hold values on economic and social questions that are unlike those of most voters. However, Coalition candidates are much closer to the people who vote for them than Labor candidates are to Labor voters. Labor’s electoral base is divided between a relatively small number of new-class social professionals and a relatively large number of people in traditional working-class occupations. These two groups often hold different values on political questions, such as border control, the size of the immigration program, cultural pluralism and so on. Labor candidates in federal elections are more likely to sympathise with the social professionals’ values than with those of their traditional supporters.
Copyright. Monash University and the author/s