90% of advisers usually vote L/NP, only 30% intend to this time

Financial advisers who admit to having been rusted-on Liberal/National Party voters are signalling they will be changing their vote to independents or minor parties at the 21 May Federal Election.

At the half-way point of the Federal Election campaign, a survey undertaken by Financial Newswire suggests that if financial advisers are to be taken as a guide to overall voting intention then rather than the Australian Labor Party (ALP) winning office, the incumbent Morrison Liberal/National Party Government will lose office through an erosion of its own support.

The majority expectation of the advisers who have responded to the survey is that the Australian Labor Party will either form Government in its own right or form a minority Government with the assistance of the independents.

The Financial Newswire survey shows that the financial advisers who were angry with the Government at the beginning of the election campaign are still angry.

What the Government should find particularly disturbing is that close to 90% of respondents to the survey described themselves as usually voting for the Liberal/National Party but only 29% said they would be doing so in this election.

A significant proportion of advisers (35%) said they would be voting for independents, while 23% said they would be voting for the ALP and 9% said they would be voting for the United Australia Party.

And just as they did in the first survey conducted by Financial Newswire at the start of the campaign, advisers are saying their motivation for removing their support from the Government is that they believe they have been treated poorly (71%) or are being strangled by the high cost of regulation (60%).

Explaining his/her attitude, one respondent cited objecting to “being lectured by habitual liars who hid behind political correctness rather than genuinely being interested in making advice more accessible”.

Another cited “the Government’s inability to deliver when it counts”.

Asked which of the major parties they expected would form Government after 21 May, just 6% of advisers cited the L/NP, compared to 51% for the ALP and 43% for a minority Government.

The second Financial Newswire survey of adviser voting intentions coincided with the Association of Independent Financial Professionals (AIOFP) advising its members to place the Liberal/National Party last on their ballot papers without, at the same time, suggesting they vote for any particular alternative.