Links between family structure and voting in Australia

Abstract

Some of the features of the 2004 Australian federal election campaign and outcomes raise the possibility that we might have seen the beginnings of a divide in voting behaviour based on family structure, particularly those aspects related to the presence or absence of children. In the light of ongoing demographic trends (such as low fertility rates and growth in single person households) this would be plausible and the issue certainly justifies some further investigation. Relevant data from the 2004 Australian Election Study is quite limited, so I use data from both the 2004 AES and the 2003 Australian Survey of Social Attitudes to explore the extent to which family structure currently appears to be associated with federal voting.