The “pink vote” is a mysterious, dangerous area of politics that gets column inches but is soon forgotten after polling day.
But to what extent does the L-sbian, Gay, Bis-xual and Trans (LGBT) vote affect the Election Day result? With little or no evidence on the matter we have exclusively conducted a snapshot poll for Crikey on how 322 LGBT people across all ages and states voted in the 2007 Federal Election.
House of Representatives:
| Political Party | LGBT Poll | Election Result | Swing |
| Labor | 47.2% | 43.4% | 3.8% |
| Greens | 24.5% | 7.8% | 16.7% |
| Liberal/Nationals | 18.1% | 41.8% | -23.7% |
| Democrats | 6.5% | 0.7% | 5.8% |
Perhaps a little surprisingly the Labor party only saw a relatively small swing towards them in first preference voting of 3.8%. The big winners were the Greens who picked up an impressive 24.5% ahead of the Coalition who suffered a 23.7% drop in votes relative to the election result. The now virtually defunct Democrats put up a strong performance with 6.5%.
However, when preferences are taken into consideration, the ALP picked up a huge swing of 24.3% and was a firm favourite with LGBT voters on 24 November 2007.
Two Party Preferred
| Political Party | LGBT Poll | Election Result | Swing |
| Labor | 77% | 52.7% | 24.3% |
| Coalition | 23% | 47.3% | -24.3 |
And the Senate poll shows an even more extraordinary result
Senate
| Political Party | LGBT Poll | Election Result | Swing |
| Greens | 39.4% | 9% | 30.4% |
| Labor | 28.9% | 40.3% | -11.4% |
| Coalition | 16.8% | 40% | -23.5% |
| Democrats | 9.6% | 1.3% | 8.3% |
A massive exodus from the major parties saw the Greens bring in more pink votes than the Labor party and pick up an incredible 30.4% swing compared to the Australian electorate.
Why such a huge two party swing to Labor and the Greens in the Senate? Some answers can be found in what issues influenced the pink vote on Election Day. Echoing a Newspoll survey in December ’07, respondents were asked what issues were very important to them in making their decision.
| Issue | LGBT Poll | Newspoll | Swing |
| Health and Medicare | 67.7% | 68% | -0.3% |
| Environment | 66.8% | 58% | 8.8% |
| LGBT Issues | 65.8% | n/a | n/a |
| Education | 57.1% | 67% | -9.9% |
| Economy | 53.4% | 58% | -4.6% |
Like the rest of Australia, Health and the Environment (in particular) were two of the most important issues affecting their vote. However LGBT issues were just as significant. With 50% respondents stating that the Greens were the best to deal with these issues, it’s hardly surprising they performed so well. And when that filters down to a two party preference, the votes will always fall Labor’s way.
Respondents were also asked about their support on a variety of issues and the results show more Labor/Green affiliation. 90% support for the Kyoto Protocol, 82% for the Apology and 72% for a Republic.
One issue that has a more personal resonance is the question of same-s-x marriage. 87% of respondents support same-s-x marriage whilst 96% support Civil Partnerships or Unions (like those in the UK or New Zealand). Though the support is slightly split, there can be no doubt that some type of formal relationship recognition is supported by nearly the entire LGBT community.
This brings us back full circle to present day Kevin Rudd. According to a British Government estimate, 6% of the population belong to the “pink vote” — which equates to around 800,000 votes across all Australian electorates. With 77% of those going to Labor, we know Kevin07 rode part of the way to Canberra on the back of the LGBT community.
One year on and the Same-S-x Entitlements Bill has passed through the Senate. Will this be enough? Kevin Rudd has repeated and defended John Howard’s “Marriage is for only a man and a woman” rhetoric. Penny Wong’s appointment to Cabinet has been soured by her silence on same-s-x marriage while the list of countries recognising same-s-x relationships continues to grow.
Following the defeat of gay marriage in California, the American LGBT community has awoken with some vigour — will the somewhat apathetic Australian community do the same? How will this affect the pink vote with a “gay-friendly” Malcolm Turnbull leading the Coalition?
Only one thing is certain — Kevin and Malcolm can’t wait two years to find out.
I’m not exactly sure that this poll was conducted with a good cross-section of the LGBT community. I know that contrary to popular belief, most of the LGBT people I know (and being one myself) voted for the coalition. At first this surprised me, but after time it seemed that most of the gays I knew voted this way. However, having said that, most of my gay friends are from well-to-do families, and this probably has a strong bearing on their support for the coalition.
A good result for the Democrats. I get a feeling they are starting to be missed and will make a comeback.
“The good Minister is legally married to her wife in her wife’s native country (I think it’s Sweden)”
Not actually true- that particular rumour was aired via an anonymous letter published in a Sydney gay newspaper (not the one I write for) without the fact of the allegation being checked.
In addition, same sex marriage is not yet legal in Sweden. Civil unions are, but despite wide support amongst Swedes for marriage equality, the country’s Christian Democrats (one of four parties that make up the current centre-right administration) have been holding back the pace of planned reforms. It should be legalised some time in the next year- probably around May, though possibly with a Christian Democrat amendment banning progressive churches from providing same sex couples with a church wedding ceremony.
On the Penny Wong issue, I am even more amazed that this woman can serve in a cabinet that specifically denies her fellow Gay and Lesbian community members a legal right she actually posseses.
The good Minister is legally married to her wife in her wife’s native country (I think it’s Sweden). So she would seem to want to have her cake and eat it all by her self without even offering token support to anyone else having access to that same cake at home.
I wonder if the Minister can spell HYPOCRITE.
I think that it starts with a P.