How the seeds of the 2022 election result were sown years ago by ABC News Digital Storytelling team

Australia's secret ballot voting system means we can’t figure out how individuals or specific groups of people voted. When combined with a paucity of fast-turnaround post-election public opinion research, this means it's very difficult to use data to analyse the trends behind election results.

This often leaves the door open to all kinds of narratives to emerge, based on the statements of politicians and the theories of media commentators.

However. we do know a fair bit about the voters who make up different electorates in Australia, and we also know how those electorates voted. In 2022, ABC News Story Lab brought together those two sources of information to see what patterns emerge.

The result is a nuanced data story that not only attempts to provide analysis of the election result, but along the way teaches the audiences about how to think about data – and also how to read scatterplots, a critical chart for trying to better understand correlations.

The story identified some remarkable trends that had begun in earlier election cycles, and helped provide unique insight into the 2022 results.

Readers called the story "super fascinating", "beautifully presented" and full of insight. Respected Stanford political scientist and data analyst Andrew Gelman wrote: "This is an excellent dynamic visualization, one of the best I’ve ever seen. Just a wonderful mix of graphics and text developing over time."