Undecided women could hold key to Australian election – Survey

AUSTRALIA: Undecided female voters are set to be a decisive factor in the Australian election, research has found.

According to a survey published by Australian National University (ANU) on Wednesday, women are three times more likely than men to have not yet decided who they will vote for in Saturday’s election.

The poll of 3,500 Australians found that 8.4 percent of female voters are undecided compared to 2.8 percent of men.

Among men, 36.5 percent said they would vote for the Opposition Labor Party and 34.5 percent for the governing coalition.

By comparison, of female respondents, 33.4 percent said they would vote for the center-left Labor and 29.2 percent for the conservative coalition.

Women were significantly more likely to support the left-wing Greens, 19.8 percent compared to 12.2 percent of males.

Michelle Ryan, director of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at ANU, said the findings suggest women’s votes remain “up for grabs.”

“We found the two parties that have the greatest level of confidence with regards to gender equality are the Greens and the Labor party, with exactly half, 50 percent, of respondents saying they have some level of confidence in Labor to deliver on gender equity,” Ryan said.

Two-thirds of respondents said they had little confidence in Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Liberal Party, which forms the coalition with the National Party, to deliver gender equality.

– XINHUA