The first federal election we covered on Zee Feed was in 2022, just two years after I founded this publication. After nine years in government, the Coalition was emphatically voted down by Australians who’d had enough of Scott Morrison himself, and his scandal-plagued ministers. The emergence of TikTok, the rise (and triumph) of independent candidates, a climate conscious youthquake and women voters were the much-discussed factors that, once the dust settled, had ended almost a decade of Coalition rule.
While Anthony Albanese’s Labor party wasn’t voted in as much as Morrison’s Coalition was voted out, there was a distinct feeling of optimism. I remember the feeling so well.
Now, the 2025 federal election is taking place in very different times. How can so much have changed in three years?
This time around, TikTok and digital platforms are as important to the election campaign as broadcast television. Global politics have lurched to the right, with the discourse imported directly into ours by social and mainstream media. Inflation somehow got worse, and is only just now starting to fall. We’ve been watching Israel livestream its attempts to wipe Palestine and Palestinians off the face of the planet. For 546 days.
The optimism that came with Albanese’s promise of a “no one left behind” progressive government deserted me long ago. And I know many of you feel exactly the same way.
But that lack of optimism makes the task much more difficult for feminists, progressives and leftists. When times are tough and morale is low, fear motivates people to vote for regressive ideas. We have to be efficient with where and how we channel our energy to get the outcomes we want.
So, I’m taking a different approach to our 2025 election coverage. Rather than getting into the weeds, Zee Feed will be a place for bigger ideas that exist beyond the churn of the newscycle.
Introducing… the 2025 Election Special Issue. Like a magazine – complete with its own digital cover – with multiple stories ready for you to dig into all at once, whenever you’re ready.
What’s in the 2025 Election Special Issue?
You can expect thoughtful, helpful commentary and analysis of the biggest issues in this election campaign – which, of course, is the Zee Feed way! They’ll be published in two drops, one available now and another midway through to allow us to capture any themes that come from the campaign itself.
Right now you can read about: why the climate crisis has been pushed into the background, after being the issue of the 2022 election; a critique of this being so-called “cost-of-living” election; and which opinion polls are actually worth paying attention to.
A note on Zee Feed’s role in the election
There’s already been a lot of discussion about the influence of new media in this election. Here’s what I believe Zee Feed’s role – and by extension, mine – is:
This is an explicitly ideological publication. It’s right there in the first line of the About page, our journalism, commentary and analysis is proudly intersectional and feminist. We do not pretend to be objective or unbiased (which are terms often used by other media outlets to hide centrist beliefs). Given that the vast majority of Australian media is underpinned by and promotes conservative beliefs, I’m more than comfortable to provide one of the few alternatives.
Having said that, I don’t think Zee Feed’s job is to change your mind or your vote. Whose mind would I be changing? Our audience shares our feminist beliefs! Whose mind would I be changing? Instead, I see our articles as points of conversation, giving you the language to spread these ideas and be offline influencers. You’re much better placed to change the minds of the people in your life than I am.
That last point is especially important, and I might piss off some of my peers by saying this but…
Offline conversations are much more effective at changing people’s hearts and minds than online content. If the goal is reversing Australia’s slide to the right, sharing posts and videos is not going to do much.
The best case study for this comes from the 2022 election, and the historic “best ever” result by the Greens, which included winning three important Queensland seats: Griffith and Brisbane. They achieved this in part by mobilising a huge doorknocking campaign facilitating face-to-face conversations about Greens political policies and values.
Griffith MP Max Chandler-Mather told the Betoota Talks podcast: “Whenever we get a new [doorknocking volunteer], the first time they’ve come back and they’ve changed someone’s mind it’s like they’ve found a new religion. They’re like ‘Wow, this works’. Over the weekend this guy called Alex a volunteer of ours, he said ‘Max, I changed this One Nation voter’s mind … I think I got him to vote for the Greens now!’”
Travis Jordan, an organiser for the Greens who was behind Stephen Bates’ win in Brisbane also has also shared some put some figures to the phenomenon: “I just wrapped up my rounds of letterboxing newly flood prone areas and I’m shocked at how little comms some people have received… I’ve been putting out daily email updates summarising changes — but I only have 11,000 email addresses in my electorate of 180,000 people.
We put up social media posts but political pages are deprioritised and people don’t follow pollies anymore (for good reason). If you don’t watch broadcast TV or read the newspaper (which is a huge proportion of people), the most you’d have is some scattered social media posts that range from anodyne to harmful misinformation. Or you have nothing at all.”
There is no post you could possibly share that will be more effective at changing hearts and minds than being an active member of your community, having real conversations with people of different political beliefs.
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