The Liberal Party is losing grip on their ‘better economic manager’ brand recognition with young voters (18-34 year olds) overwhelmingly rating the Labor Party as the better economic manager in Government.

Key Findings:

o   Young people rated the Labor Party better economic managers in government than the Coalition.

• 44% aged 18-24 rated the Labor Party better economic managers compared to 28% rating Coalition better.

• 45% aged 25-35 rated the Labor Party as better, compared to 29% who rated Coalition better.

o   While the total population does rate the Liberal Party as better economic managers overall, the total population rates Labor better in terms of managing the economy on nine key issues including wages (51%-24%) and cost of living (40%-32%).

“The oldest of this cohort, aged 34 years old would have been only 22 years of age when Kevin Rudd became Prime Minister in 2007 and would have been entering the workforce during the Global Financial Crisis,” said Ben Oquist, Executive Director of the Australia Institute.

“For young people, their first interactions with the Australian and world economy would have been with Wayne Swan and the Labor Party successfully avoiding the GFC.

“While the total population rates the Liberal Party as better economic managers, young people rate the Labor Party as better and the overall population rates Labor better in terms of managing the economy when it comes to wages and cost of living.

“What young people consider when rating ‘better economic management’ is likely to also be different to other age groups – what the government is doing for housing affordability, and what the government is doing to safeguard our economy from climate change are likely to be key in their assessment.”