Victorian Election Heats Up: One Nation Gains Momentum as Voters Turn to AI for Information
The Victorian state election is shaping up to be a three-way contest between Labor, the Coalition, and One Nation, with polls suggesting a tight race and both major parties facing challenges within their own ranks. Voters are increasingly turning to AI chatbots to inform them about political issues, which could have significant implications for the election outcome.
A daily three-way contest between Labor, the Coalition, and One Nation is unfolding in the Victorian state election, with polls suggesting a tight race and both major parties facing challenges within their own ranks.
With fewer than 50 days until Victorians cast their votes, the race is operating on two levels: the macro and the subterranean. The race is becoming a proxy war on several fronts that are less obvious but nationally significant.
Rumbles in the ranks
At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Brisbane this weekend, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor played second fiddle to One Nation leader Pauline Hanson. She was the rock star.
Victorian Premier Ben Carroll's primary opponent is Labor. He has to convince voters he offers something different from the government he helped run.
Labor has a habit of handing the leadership to a woman when the party is on its last legs: Joan Kirner in Victoria, Kristina Keneally in New South Wales. It also handed it to Jacinta Allan, but all she did was remind voters of Daniel Andrews. He continued to loom over her leadership.
Ben Carroll faces the task of convincing disgruntled Labor voters that he is listening to their concerns.
AI in the campaign
Voters are increasingly turning to AI chatbots to inform them about political issues.
Research from digital marketing agency Topham Guerin points to another problem: AI can leave One Nation out of the answer. In 200 answers comparing parties on Victorian election issues, the models mentioned Labor in all, the Liberals and Nationals in 199 each, the Greens in 178, and One Nation in just 43.
As Andrew Hirst, former Liberal Party director and now chief executive of Topham Guerin, puts it: "Voters and consumers are increasingly getting their information from AI tools, so political parties and media outlets are being judged on how well a machine can understand them."
"These tools aren't making things up from scratch. They draw heavily on a small number of sources they trust. Whoever explains something most clearly online ends up explaining it to everyone who asks an AI," he said.
Ben Guerin, Topham Guerin co-founder, added: "This isn't bias in the way people usually mean it. If a party doesn't set out its policies clearly on its own site, and what the media and others say about them is thin, the AI has less to work with, so it says less. Being absent online means being absent from the answer chatbots give."