The Prime Minister’s announcement of the 2019 Federal Election has seen an increase of Higgins mentions in the last week. From the 8th to the 15th of April, Swinburne has worked with Talkwalker to determine how much of an impact Scott Morrison’s call made in terms of media traffic. Through searching the word ‘Higgins’ during this timeframe, Talkwalker reveals that the total number of mentions for the week was approximately 1100. This has increased from 839 total mentions between the 1st to the 7th of April.

These mentions have taken place on media platforms such as online news, Twitter,  Facebook, blogs, newspapers, forums, magazines and TV/radio.

Despite a general increase, the data show that the most discussion occurred on the 11th of April when Scott Morrison faced the media to call the election, especially on online news platforms. As a historically Liberal seat, the reality that Labor and the Greens are in serious contention to win has news outlets focusing on the fact that the potential loss of this seat may be critical for the Liberal party.

In addition to the number of mentions, our data analytics program has determined the most common words associated with Higgins’ discussions. Aligning with our findings from last week, ‘climate’ continues to be a major topic of conversation with ‘Adani’ making its way into public discussion following a lively debate on ‘Mornings with Jon Faine’ on ABC radio.

It is also interesting to note that the words ‘Labor’ and ‘Greens’ appeared in more discourse than ‘Coalition’ and ‘Liberals.’

The election will see half of the current Senate and all members of the House of Representatives face re-election, with candidates having until April 23rd to nominate themselves.

Labor, Liberal and the Greens have all pre-selected their candidates, but we look forward to more minor party and independent candidates coming forwards.