Why did voters support the Australian Democrats?
The party did not attract a distinctive social or geographical base on which they could rely for electoral support.[16] Ian McAllister of the Australian National University has said that typically about 50 per cent of the Democratic vote turned over at each election, thereby making it difficult to define a typical Democrat voter by characteristics such as socioeconomic status or age.[17] However, it would appear that the Democrats appealed to a middle-class, predominately urban, educated, often younger voter. Janine Haines described her party’s supporters as: … people between the age of 25 and 40 who have children, aged parents; those on the way up the job ladder, who care about equality across the board for women, Aboriginals, migrants and who care about the environment in a much broader way than saving a dam here or a tree there … Our supporters are people who can think in complexities—that’s why we are a minority party. [18] The initial strength of the Democrats has been partly attr
