Changes in the ethnic vote in Australia, 1967–79

Abstract

Abstract Recent empirical research has revealed the existence of distinctive voting patterns among some of Australia's overseas‐born electors. This paper extends this research by analysing changes over time in the voting patterns of the three major birthplace groups, applying multi‐variate techniques to three large nationwide surveys conducted in 1967, 1973 and 1979. In all three surveys, Northern Europeans (most British) emerge as politically indistinguishable from the Australian‐born majority, while Eastern Europeans are consistently anti‐Labor. Mediterranean voters, by contrast, were significantly anti‐Labor in 1967 and 1973, but had become significantly more likely to support Labor by 1979. Two hypotheses tested to explain these patterns, length of residence in Australia and the timing of the migrant's first vote, are both rejected. Instead, anti‐Labor preferences of Eastern Europeans seem to follow from long standing anti‐communist sentiments, while the switch in the political allegiances of Mediterr...