An online Neos Kosmos poll this week indicated that the Greek community in Australia continues to have a strong political allegiance to the Labor Party.
When the question ‘Who do you think will win the election?’ was asked on our website, 58 per cent of respondents stated they expected Labor to win, 37 per cent sided with the Coalition, with 2 per cent going with the Greens and 3 per cent expecting another party to win.
These findings might reflect the wider expectations created by Kevin Rudd’s come back in the leadership of the Labor Party and in the Prime Ministership of Australia. These results though, might also reflect an expectation created by a life-long association of the majority of first generation Greeks in Australia with the Labor Party, an association that remains strong in the first generation, while it is also passed on to a significant number of subsequent generations of Greek Australians.
This is not surprising, since research in countries such as the United Kingdom and the USA has indicated there is a link between ethnicity and voting behaviour. The Labor party in Australia and other similar parties abroad tend to benefit from the ethnic minority vote.