The term swing refers to the extent of change in voter support, typically from one election or opinion poll to another, expressed as a positive or negative percentage point.
The concept of "swing" in Australian elections is not simply a function of the difference between the votes of the two leading candidates, as it is in Britain.
It is not uncommon in Australia for candidates who have comfortable leads on the first count to fail to win the seat, because "preference flows" go against them.
In seats where the major parties do not come first and second, differing TPP and TCP results are returned.
Thus, the pendulum predicted that Labor would need a uniform TPP swing of 4.9 points to win the 2007 election.
In first-past-the-post voting, the Liberals would have retained the seat, and their majority would be said to be 3.4 percentage points (45.3 − 41.9).
[4][5][6] Liberal leader Martin Hamilton-Smith claimed victory on behalf of the party.
Examples of this are the 2008 Mayo and 2002 Cunningham federal by-elections, with seats returning to TPP form at the next election.