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Key seats stay most active on social media

Throughout the campaign Facebook users in key seats stayed the most engaged in political discussions as more Australians followed the election online.

From Googling Bill Shorten's man boobs to hunting down a polling day democracy sausage, millions of Australians have jumped online to talk politics during the election.

Many pundits have labelled the lengthy campaign boring but 3.6 million Australians have been talking about the campaign on Facebook.

Voters in marginal seats were the among most engaged throughout the eight-week campaign, according to the site.

Users from four marginal seats have ranked in the top five most engaged electorates on Facebook and those in Jamie Briggs' seat of Mayo also climbed to the third most engaged in the country.

The Facebook leaders debate between the prime minister and opposition leader garnered around 800,000 views by the end of the campaign.

Malcolm Turnbull has led Mr Shorten in share of Google searches for most of the campaign with interest in the leaders narrowing in the last week, according to Google Trends data.

Searches for the One Nation leader Pauline Hanson have outstripped National leader Barnaby Joyce and Greens leader Richard Di Natale in the last week of campaigning.

It seems Mr Turnbull can't shake Tony Abbott but neither can Mr Shorten escape talk about his man boobs with both featuring in key topics searched in relation to the leaders.

The economy has remained front and centre in discussions on Facebook throughout, but in the last week of campaigning the same-sex marriage plebiscite became the most tweeted term in connection with the prime minister.

But on Facebook the key moments for Mr Turnbull were posts showing a more personal side with a video about his father receiving the most attention.

In contrast Mr Shorten's most shared posts mainly featured policy with national disability funding, Medicare and the NBN in those posts ranking highly.

THE CAMPAIGN ON SOCIAL MEDIA

TWITTER (June 24 to July 1)

* Mr Turnbull has received more than double Mr Shorten's attention

* Marriage equality, plebiscite and Brexit are among the most mentioned terms tweeted at either leader

* Most engaged states:

1. ACT

2. Victoria

3. NSW

4. SA

6. Qld

7. Tas

8. WA

9. NT

FACEBOOK (May 8 to June 30)

* Most engaged electorates:

1. Macquarie(NSW)

2. Page(NSW)

3. Mayo (SA)

4. Braddon (Tas)

5. Corangamite (Vic)

* Those most engaged nationally are men (56 pct) compared to women (44 pct) but it's the opposite in the key seats of Page, Indi, Eden-Monaro, Richmond, New England and Bendigo.

* Most discussed issues nationally:

1. Economy

2. Social issues

3. Budget

4. Foreign policy

5. Benefits and social welfare

6. Environment

7. Government accountability

8. Terrorism and surveillance

GOOGLE (May 1 - June 28)

* Topics searched in relation to Mr Turnbull:

- Bill Shorten

- debate

- Tony Abbott

- election

* Key topics searched in relation to Mr Shorten:

- Malcolm Turnbull

- Chloe

- gynaecomastia (a medical term for enlarging a man's breasts)

- debate

Most searched leaders on average:

1. Mr Turnbull

2. Mr Shorten

3. Ms Hanson

4. Mr Joyce

5. Dr Di Natale

Most searched parties on average:

1. Labor

2. Liberal

3. Australian Greens

4. Xenophon Team

5. National

SOURCE: Trendsmap, Facebook, Google


3 min read

Published

Source: AAP



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