Candidates have made their promises. It is time for Australians to decide who to vote for on Saturday.
Here at Curtin’s Bentley campus we are in the electorate of Swan. This electorate has been a swing seat between the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal Party since 1949. The electorate is currently in the hands of Labor, and while it has been deemed to be a safe seat by the ABC, with a 9.4% margin, political pundit William Bowe, who publishes as Pollbludger, calculates the margin to be 9.6% and considers it to be “less safe”.
The electorate has six lower house candidates contesting this election:
- Zaneta Mascarenhas, the Australian Labor Party (incumbent)
- Mic Fels, the Liberal Party
- Clint Uink, the Greens (WA) Inc.
- Michael Halley, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation
- Mark Staer, Australian Christians
- Shelley Leech, Legalise Cannabis Party
The lead-up to the election has seen discussion on a range of issues, but according to Liberal’s Swan candidate Mic Fels: “It’s a cost-of-living election.” The Liberals are also trying to win the seat back by talking about crime and promising tougher laws to deal with drugs, knife crime and “the tide of antisemitism afflicting our country.”
A Liberal party statement promised an antisemitism taskforce and said: “Some of the most strident antisemitic standard-bearers have come from our university campuses.”
While policing is largely a state-funded issue, Fels said: “Crime has become a number one problem that I want to address. The second one, that’s the really top priority, is the housing situation.”
The other candidates have also laid out their key priorities, if they are elected.
The Liberal party’s plan to tackle to cost of housing is linked to cutting international student numbers.
In a statement it said: “An elected Dutton Coalition Government will act immediately to reduce the number of international students in Higher Education and Vocational Education and Training (VET) as part of our plan to restore the Australian dream of home ownership and reduce pressure on the housing market.”
John Curtin Institute of Public Policy executive director Professor John Phillimore explained the connection saying: “What the Coalition tried to do is combine the migration issue with the cost-of-living issue. Particularly with the housing issue.
“By arguing that having a large number of migrants come in, which is what happened in the last couple of years, that has put pressure on housing prices,” said Professor Phillimore.
In contrast Labor plans to tackle to high cost of housing by giving “all first home buyers access to 5 per cent deposits and invest[ing] $10 billion to build up to 100,000 homes for sale only to first home buyers.”
Lastly, there is the ongoing debate over nuclear energy. Labor is an opponent of it, while the Liberals are the opposite, with Coalition Leader Peter Dutton seeking to build nuclear reactors around Australia if elected Prime Minister.
Climate Energy finance director Tim Buckley said that one of the biggest arguments against nuclear energy was the development cost and time needed.
This was further explained in a report, where he wrote: “We have no supply chains. We have no labour force; it would cost a lot of money, and it will take twenty years to build.”
Tim Buckley presenting at Liverpool Plains Harvest Festival in 2015. Photo: kateausburn, Flickr
CSIRO shared similar sentiments, stating nuclear power would cost twice as much as renewable power.
While the preferential voting system is likely to deliver the House of Representatives seat of Swan to either the Labor or Liberal candidate, others are contending for the seat and for the senate votes of citizens of Swan. This includes the Legalise Cannabis Party. The party’s Western Australia Senate Candidate Jason Meotti spoke of independent politicians’ potential to allow higher chances for reform.
“I’m a genuine independent in terms of the party that I’m in,” said Meotti.
“My masters are the Western Australian people, and I will fight vigorously on their behalf in order to get things that will help Western Australia. If I’m lucky enough to be elected, I may also share the balance of power with some of the other more moderate independents.”
While early voting commenced on 22 April 2025, election day is 3 May 2025 with booths closing at 6pm.
