FED:Teens return Labor to power in mock poll

08-18-2010
FED:Teens return Labor to power in mock poll

SYDNEY, Aug 18 AAP - The results are in, and the Labor government led by Prime Minister
Julia Gillard has been returned to power.

Well, not quite.

But that's what would happen if Australian teenagers were to decide the outcome of
the 2010 federal election, according to a mock poll which asked 15-17-year-olds to cast
their ballot.

Five thousand youngsters took part in the `youth election', created by internet giant
Google to determine how the voters of tomorrow regard the major party leaders.

The results show the ALP won a three-seat majority in the House of Representatives,
while the coalition won the popular vote, with the Greens taking the balance of power
in the Senate.

The Google Student Voice 2010 election, conducted between August 9-12, also revealed
that of the 72 electorates where the student vote was captured, Labor won 28 Lower House
seats, the coalition 25 seats, and the Greens 15 seats.

The Christian Democrat Party, Independent, Family First and One Nation won one seat each.

The ALP was strongest in NSW and Victoria, where it won 21 out of 28 seats, while the
coalition took 15 of the 25 seats in the resource-rich states of Queensland and Western
Australia, including the marginal seat of Hasluck, with the Liberal candidate Ken Wyatt
gaining 56 per cent of votes.

The Greens were strongest in Victoria and stormed into retiring Labor MP Lindsay Tanner's
seat of Melbourne - winning more than half the student votes in that electorate.

In the Senate, there was a big swing to the Greens, with Australian students voting
for 16 Green senators, matching the ALP, and only marginally behind that of the coalition.

Google Australia's Director of Engineering Alan Noble says the exercise was one in democracy.

"We hope it inspires students to engage and make their voice heard," he said in a statement.

Mr Noble added that when this generation is old enough to vote, it will be doing so online.

The school students voted for lower and upper house candidates via online ballot papers
in their classes, at lunch, and in the playground between August 9-17.

AAP bzs/goc/

KEYWORD: POLL10 YOUTH

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