Burt voters not interested in political analysis according to Roy Morgan poll

ONLY 9 per cent of electors in Burt want to read, watch or hear any political analysis in their media during the election campaign, new research by pollster Roy Morgan has revealed.

In a sign election issues are not gaining much traction with local voters, Burt was listed in the bottom 10 electorates in Australia showing interest in the marathon campaign.

That is despite the newly created seat shaping up as a close contest between Labor candidate Matt Keogh and Liberal candidate Matt O’Sullivan who are set to face off in a debate in Armadale next Wednesday.

Nationally, less than one in five electors, or 19 per cent, especially want to read, watch or hear any political analysis in their media during the week.

The most engaged electorate in political issues was the safe Labor seat of Grayndler in the inner west of Sydney, with 46 per cent eager consumers of political news.

Greens voters are the most likely to want some political analysis in their media at least once during the week (26 per cent), ALP voters are slightly more likely than average (20 per cent) and Liberal voters are slightly less likely (18 per cent).

The least interested were National voters (15 per cent), Independent/Other voters (14 per cent) and undecided voters (11 per cent).

Roy Morgan Research chief executive Michele Levine said voters most likely to be interested in politics were in safe seats.

“All the Top 10 most political engaged electorates are in urban Sydney, Melbourne or Canberra, while those where voters are least interested in getting political analysis in their media are mostly in Queensland, SA, or WA.”

Ms Levine said there did not seem to be a correlation between how tightly contested a seat was and its residents’ interest in political analysis.

“Of course, many voters who might not necessarily be interested in ‘political analysis’ are still politically engaged this election, whether through desire for locally focused or national news, or concern for issues and policies of importance rather than polls and analysis,” she said.

Survey date was obtained from Roy Morgan’s Single Source Australia, spanning October 2013 to March 2016, sampling 104,745 electors.