Plenty has happened since the last federal election, with a global pandemic, floods, war in Europe and increases in the cost of living.
As Australians prepare to head back to the polls after a massive few years, Vote Compass is here to help show how your views sit with the policy positions of our political parties.
Finding out where you sit on the political spectrum is as easy as answering a few quick questions.
Topics covered this year include:
- What share of childcare costs should be paid for by the federal government?
- How much money should out-of-work Australians receive in unemployment benefits?
- How much should Australia spend on foreign aid?
Vote Compass can be done on your smartphone and can provide fresh insights — even if you've done it before.
Once you finish the Vote Compass survey, you will be placed on a two-dimensional map representing the social and economic dimensions of political opinion.
It's pretty simple — the higher your circle on the chart, the more socially progressive your views. If your circle is lower, you're more socially conservative.
The further left your circle, the more economic left your views — and vice versa.
ABC election analyst Antony Green said using the Vote Compass tool was a good way to start thinking about policy issues.
"It's not often that people pay much attention to policy, but if you do Vote Compass you get asked a whole series of questions on policy issues and it helps you think about them," he said.
This is the fourth time the ABC has used Vote Compass for a federal election, and with more than 1 million people participating each year, it is the largest survey of voter attitudes in the country.
Should I do it again?
The term "unprecedented" has had a good work-out in the past few years, but it's worth noting a lot has changed since the 2019 federal election.
Some of the 30 questions in Vote Compass have appeared before, like those on funding to non-government schools, whether Australia should become a republic and immigration numbers.
But others focus on the issues that have more recently dominated the political agenda — think pay increases for aged care workers and whether the federal government should underwrite private insurance coverage for flood losses.
Mr Green said voters and political parties were grappling with whole new issues this election.
"COVID has also made people think more about nursing homes and retirement policy, and how we fund nursing homes, so that's raised questions about those issues, which probably haven't received that much attention in the past."
University of Sydney political scientist Peter Chen said not only had parties' policy agendas changed since 2019, but many Australians had been forced to rethink their personal views.
"Obviously, the federal electoral cycle is comparatively short … but for most people, I think the last federal election feels like a lifetime ago."
What Vote Compass is not
Dr Chen said while Vote Compass was not a how-to-vote card, it may help people engage with policies.
"Often, you think you know where particular parties or leaders stand and what they stand for, but sometimes we're wrong, and sometimes we're wrong because we haven't had time to pay attention to all the debates, and sometimes we're wrong because there's been a change in direction," Dr Chen said.
The main goal of Vote Compass is not to forecast who might win the election, but to get Australians thinking and talking about important matters of public policy.
It will also help us get a sense of what voters are thinking about different issues.
ABC News will publish regular results from the Vote Compass survey during the election campaign across its digital, television and radio platforms, in order to help Australians understand how voters are feeling about the key issues and our political leaders.
Vote Compass asks for your demographic data so that the results can be adjusted to reflect the Australian population, but your personal information is not linked to your survey answers.
