Polls have opened this morning for the ACT election. It will determine whether ACT Labor is returned for a historic seventh term of government or if the Canberra Liberals will end their 23 years in opposition.
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00:00Voting is very much underway in earnest this morning.
00:06The barbecues are fired up, they've been pumping out democracy sausages, democracy bacon and
00:11egg rolls, and there's also a coffee van and a cake stall as well, so there's plenty on
00:17offer for voters today.
00:19What's interesting in the ACT is that early voting is really popular.
00:23In 2020, less than a third of votes were cast on polling day, that was obviously a pandemic
00:28election.
00:30This year hasn't been quite as popular, but nevertheless, 40-50% of voters have already
00:35cast their vote, and most of those have done so electronically, which means that hopefully
00:40this evening determining a result should be pretty quick.
00:44In the absence of any opinion polls, what we know is that there is a bit of a mood for
00:49change around.
00:50ACT Labor's now been in power for 23 years, most recently governing in a coalition with
00:56the Greens, and so there is a sense that now is the time for change.
01:00That's certainly what the Canberra Liberals have been playing on, saying that they've
01:04just been in power for too long, and on the other hand, ACT Labor have been pitching themselves
01:10to voters as that stable hand to guide the government.
01:14Also of note this election is that for the first time in decades, independents have emerged
01:20as a potential political force.
01:24What we don't know is what an assembly would look like with independents in government.
01:29We don't know who they would support, and the ACT's electoral system makes it quite
01:34hard for independents to be elected, so we'll be keeping an eye on that this evening, and
01:39also on what happens with the Greens' vote in 2020.
01:42The Greens gained six seats, which was a historic win for them, and it will be interesting to
01:48see whether they can retain those seats or if support has slid in the last few years.
01:54We just don't know yet whether that mood for change is going to really translate to voters
01:59changing their votes when they head into the polling booths today.
02:02This campaign has been marked by a lack of a single defining issue.
02:07A couple of areas where we have seen difference in the two major parties has been housing
02:11choice, for example, ACT Labor looking at those missing middle reforms to unlock more
02:16density in the housing market, while the Canberra Liberals also supporting an increase to density
02:22but promising to develop a pine plantation to Canberra's east.
02:28We've also seen the two parties differ on how much support, when it comes to cost of
02:32living, should be provided to voters.
02:34When it comes to defining moments of the campaign, just in the last week, yesterday we've seen
02:38ACT Labor have to retract one of its attack ads on the Canberra Liberals after it was
02:44found to be in breach of its electoral laws, and of course, infamously this week, Canberra
02:49Liberals leader Elizabeth Lee was caught on Canberra giving the finger at a journalist
02:56after a tense exchange at a press conference.
02:59And another issue which has emerged throughout the campaign is the issue of vetting candidates.
03:04Both the Liberals and the Greens have had issues where candidates' social media has
03:09come to light which has cast them in a perhaps unfavourable light in the view of voters.
03:15But whether any of that has an impact on voters' choices, we will know this evening.