Cost of living leads young voters to lean towards Labor.

An independent survey conducted by our team at Community and Patient Preference Research (CaPPRe) and Octopus Group has revealed cost of living, housing affordability, and healthcare will be front of mind for young voters when they head to polling booths this weekend for the NSW state election.

CaPPRe partnered with Australia’s largest research only panel, Octopus Group, to conduct a state-wide survey of close to 1,000 young voters between the ages of 18 and 40.

Using a specialised research technique known as Best-Worst Scaling (BWS) to identify voting preferences, participants were asked to think about which key election priority areas were most and least important to them personally, and which areas they thought were most and least important to the Australian Labor (ALP) and Liberal-National (LNP) parties over a series of choice scenarios.

The most important area young voters identified personally was cost of living, followed by housing affordability and healthcare.

Voting preferences

The largest share of voters (40%) said they intend to vote for the NSW Labor Party this weekend as they believe Labor’s policies, particularly on cost of living pressures, better align with their values (see below and graph in headline image).

Alignment with perceived party preferences

Results indicate those planning to vote for the LNP in the upcoming election see only minor differences in the party's priorities compared to the ALP.

On the other hand, those planning to vote for the ALP perceive a greater gap between the two parties.

Methodological approach & Interactive dashboard

Director of Research and Innovation at CaPPRe, Dr Simon Fifer, says the methodology behind the study differs from more commonly used survey techniques by reducing subjective scaling.

“When you just ask someone what’s important to them, you run the risk of scale bias, where although two people may rate the same item as ‘8 out of 10’, one person’s ‘8’ may not be the same as another person’s ‘8’,” Dr Fifer said.

CaPPRe’s research includes an interactive dashboard where users can split the sample into different subgroups based on their demographics, attitudes, and previous voting behaviour to provide more detailed comparative data.??

About CaPPRe and Octopus Group

Community and Patient Preference Research (CaPPRe) are a research consultancy specialising in preference studies and decision-making research. We use the most rigorous trade-off techniques combining expertise from both psychology and economics to understand how people make real world decisions. We are committed to meaningful research leading to better engagement and understanding of community and health consumer needs.

Octopus Group is a wholly Australian owned Research company. The Octopus Group survey panel has grown to be Australia's largest single source, research-only panel.?It is dedicated to data quality and the panel member experience, offering the highest survey incentives in Australia and investing much time and resources into ensuring data quality and educating members on its importance. The research panel is fully profiled on a wide range of characteristics ensuring that diverse, niche and under-represented groups can be accessed.