Highly engaged but deeply dissatisfied: Meltwater unpacks the mood around 2025 Federal Election
As the 2025 Federal Election campaign gains momentum, new insights from social and media intelligence and data analytics company Meltwater, reveal a nation that is highly engaged, but deeply dissatisfied.
Analysis of 1 million posts across social and news media from 14 March – 14 April shows that while public interest remains high, overall sentiment toward the election has been largely negative, driven in large part by over 100,000 discussions focused on the rising costs of living and the ongoing housing crisis.
Power & Energy is currently leading as the most trending topic with 70,000 posts, 825,000 engagements and 37 million in reach. Cost of living closely follows with 64,700 posts, although conversations around the housing crisis surged by 39% in the past week alone, driven by new policy announcements from the Albanese government.
Labor vs Liberal: Sentiment and Social Showdown
Meltwater’s real time insights in its Election Centre dashboard also highlight social media conversations are outpacing traditional news coverage in both volume and engagement, with both political parties’ volume of posts reflecting this trend.
Despite Peter Dutton and the Liberal Party generating a higher volume of social media activity—with 293K posts and 2.89 million engagements (compared to 163K posts and 2.14M engagements by the Albanese government), Albanese – who boasts 1.7 million followers and an average of 15.1K engagements per post – is gaining a higher reach in conversations (229M) by leveraging his strong social media presence and collaborations with influencers.
Labor vs Liberal: A Tale of Two Campaigns
The issues dominating each party’s online conversations show clear contrasts in focus. For Labor, healthcare is clearly leading the narrative, accounting for 25% of all trending discussions related to Anthony Albanese. This is followed by tax (6.1%), while the housing crisis and cost of living are tied in third place at 5.2% each.
For the Liberal party, the narrative is instead focused on immediate economic pressures, with cost of living leading at 16.5%, followed closely by power and energy (14.1%). The housing crisis also features prominently at 12.3%, while healthcare lags behind at just 7%.
Most Engaging Content and Influencers
Meltwater’s analysis also reveals the growing role influencers are playing in driving engagement with younger audiences.
Among the most influential voices is Abbie Chatfield, with one of the most engaging posts featuring Greens Leader, Adam Bandt DJ-ing to encourage youth voting for the Greens, attracting 22K engagements and 79K reach. Her platform has become a significant channel for political messaging, especially after both Bandt and Albanese appeared on her popular podcast It’s A Lot.
Some of the most viral posts by video and content engagement also include:
• @PaulineHanson’s call for reduced immigration in a Facebook post – 49K engagements;
• @batesforbrisbane’s recent Instagram reel humorously dubbing Peter Dutton “Temu Trump” – 43K engagements;
• The Betoota Advocate’s satirical Instagram post on Dutton reversing his remaining election policies – 20K engagements.
Says Ross Candido, VP ANZ at Meltwater: “Australians are showing up in force online this election, but it’s clear from the data that emotional fatigue and scepticism are running high. What we’re seeing is a real shift—not just in what voters care about, but in how and where they’re engaging. Influencers and social-first content are driving the conversation, far outpacing traditional media. For brands and political campaigns alike, tools like Meltwater’s Election Centre are critical to understanding these evolving dynamics, identifying the right channels, tailoring content that actually cuts through, and monitoring any unintended association with misinformation or content that doesn’t align with the brand’s or political campaigns’ narrative and values.”
Meltwater’s Election Centre is a custom solution built by the Meltwater Enterprise Solutions team, using Meltwater’s advanced AI engine to provide key insights from news, social media, broadcast and more, into a single dashboard. The dashboard provides real-time, actionable insights and offers a comprehensive view of the Federal Election, tracking trending themes, key issues, political share of voice, sentiment shifts, and party reputation across both news and social channels.
Please note that the information presented reflects aggregated data insights and should not be interpreted as the opinions or views of Meltwater.
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