10.4225/03/590ab31df3eb6 Betts, Katharine Katharine Betts The 2007 Australian election: blue-collar voters, migrants and the environment Monash University 2017 Australia Surveys Migrants Employment law Evaluation 1959.1/482278 journal article Elections 1039-4788 Leadership Statistics Environmental policy Employment policy Political parties monash:64149 2017-05-04 04:50:36 Journal contribution https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/journal_contribution/The_2007_Australian_election_blue-collar_voters_migrants_and_the_environment/4969526 The 2007 Australian Election Study shows that many blue-collar voters, the so-called Howard battlers, returned to Labor. Combined with earlier surveys it also shows that non-English-speaking-background migrants have consistently been more likely to vote Labor than the Australia-born. They were particularly likely to do so in 2007, especially if they were in blue-collar occupations. The Howard Government’s Work Choices legislation probably played a role in these outcomes. However, the data also show that Labor’s environmental policy also played an important part. Thirty five per cent of voters were influenced by an environmental issue during the campaign, more than were affected by any other set of issues. Concern about the environment is spread across all occupational groups, though it is rather more pronounced among professionals. Copyright. Monash University and the author/s