Non-religious Australians were “significantly less likely” to vote for the Liberal Party at the 2025 federal election, according to analysis in the party’s internal review of its disastrous election campaign.
The 60-page Review of the 2025 Federal Election document, tabled in the parliament on Tuesday, highlights “clear divides” in voting intentions based on religious affiliation.
The report says analysis by research company RedBridge found that voters who identified as Christian – Catholic and Protestant – were “slightly more likely to vote Liberal” instead of Labor.
However, RedBridge also found that non-religious voters were far more likely to vote for Labor, putting the split at 63 to 37.
People of non-Christian faith backgrounds, meanwhile, were also more likely to vote for Labor (54 to 46).
Among a number of recommendations, the review called for a “broadening” of the party’s support base if the Liberal Party were to “reflect modern Australia”.
Despite widespread media attention and public concern about the alleged support of the Plymouth Brethren Church (formerly known as the Exclusive Brethren) for the Liberal Party during the election, the party’s review said it was “grateful for the assistance” of Brethren volunteers given the lack of booth workers due to the party’s aging membership.
“There were divided opinions about the value of having Plymouth Brethren members handing out Liberal Party How to Vote cards, but clearly better training of all booth workers would ensure clear messaging and consistently appropriate engagement with voters as they approached the polling booth,” says the review.
“The Liberal Party does not, nor should have, a religious affiliation test. Protestants, Catholics, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu followers supported the Liberal Party.”
The review also claims that Plymouth Brethren members are also “not the only support group who has been accused of poor behaviour” at polling booths.
“… union officials, for example, are frequently criticised for their harassment of voters. It will need further investigation to determine why such exception has been taken to the role of the Plymouth Brethren; no doubt Brethren members themselves are reviewing their involvement,” it says.
Speaking today, the Rationalist Society of Australia’s Executive Director, Si Gladman, said Australia’s non-religious community had become increasingly concerned about the mixing of religious agendas in politics.
“Over the past decade, in particular, non-religious Australians have been turned off by an apparent hard-right Christian infiltration into politics across the country, and also by the general privileging of narrow religious interests,” he said.
“‘No religion’ is on track to overtake Christianity at this year’s Census. And, given the bias of the Census question, even this will be an undercounting of the country’s non-religious population.
“Any political party that fails to reflect Australia’s modern inclusive secular values will only find it more difficult to earn the votes of non-religious and pro-secular people.”
As the RSA reported at the time, the then Dutton opposition appeared to want to return to the Howard-era model of funding only religious chaplains in public schools, with the party pledging to “invest in chaplaincy” and “increase support for the National School Chaplaincy Program”. The Albanese government, in its first term, had renamed the program – to the National Student Wellbeing Program – and had given schools the option of appointing secular wellbeing officers.
Si Gladman is Executive Director of the Rationalist Society of Australia. He also hosts ‘The Secular Agenda’ podcast.
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Image: Australian Electoral Commission (Flickr)