Canning voters switch off

New research has found the electorate of Canning, which encompasses voters in the City of Mandurah, is one of the most politically disengaged in Australia.

Data compiled by Roy Morgan Research found only 9 per cent of voters in Canning wanted to see any political analysis, placing it ninth in the country’s top 10 most politically disengaged electorates.

According to Roy Morgan chief executive Michele Levine, the most engaged electorates were in urban Sydney, Melbourne or Canberra while the most disengaged appeared frequently in WA, South Australia and Queensland.

“Many of the voters who are most likely to be interested in political analysis are in safe seats,” Ms Levine said.

“Of course, many voters who are most likely to be interested in accessing ‘political analysis’ are still politically engaged this election, whether through desire for locally focused or national news, or concern for issues and policies of importance rather than polls and analysis.”

Two other WA electorates also made their way into the bottom 10, with the neighbouring seat of Burt in sixth and the huge rural seat of O’Connor in seventh.

Liberal MP Andrew Hastie holds the seat of Canning.

Mr Hastie won a 2015 by-election which was triggered by previous incumbent Don Randall’s death.

Mr Randall had previously held the seat for 14 years.

In the upcoming election on July 2, Mr Hastie’s will contest his seat against Labor’s Barry Winmar, Jason Turner from The Nationals, The Greens WA’s Aeron Blundell-Camden and Janine Joy Vander Ven from the Australian Christians.

Mr Hastie, who is a former special forces soldier, recently found himself in the headlines after he was sacked from the military after refusing orders to remove photos of himself in uniform from election campaign material.

Labor’s State Member for Warnbro, Paul Papalia, supported Mr Hastie over the uniform controversy.