Nuri Aydin
19 March 2024•Update: 19 March 2024
ISTANBUL
A recent survey suggests that Australia's ruling Labour Party is fast losing support among Muslim voters over Canberra's support for Israel amid its offensive on the Gaza Strip, according to local media on Tuesday.
In two 18-person focus groups, pollster Redbridge Group reported that people from the Arabic and Turkish communities of the Calwell area in Melbourne, where the Labour party has historically enjoyed strong support, were "were ready to swing hard against the government," public broadcaster ABC reported.
ABC noted that Muslims number over 810,000 in Australia's 25 million population as of 2021, forming important voter constituencies in some areas, including Calwell, where they make up 13% of residents.
According to Redbridge's director Kos Samaras, who once managed election campaigns for the Labor Party, participants in the focus groups expressed outrage at Labour's stance on Israel's war on Gaza, with many planning to vote instead for independent candidates.
"For both female and male participants, the Labor government's response to the conflict in Gaza is a reminder of why they, as a community, have decided to stop voting Labor.
"Both groups share a sense of betrayal by Labor, over several years, economically and now via the conflict in Gaza," Samaras was quoted as saying by ABC.
Maria Vamvakinou, who won the House of Representatives seat in Calwell with a lead of nearly 9% in the 2022 election, told ABC that voters in areas like hers have sent "all politicians a clear message" that they should not be taken for granted.
"I have a long history in working for a peaceful resolution to the conflict and will continue to do so. I'm heartened that parts of my community are aware of this work," Vamvakinou said.
"However, it's clear that voters in electorates like mine from diverse communities are far more politically alert as to who represents them than ever before."
Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on Gaza since a cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 which killed nearly 1,200 people.
More than 31,600 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in the enclave, and nearly 73,700 others injured, besides mass destruction, displacement and shortages of necessities.
*Writing by Serdar Dincel from Istanbul
