Wedge issue

[6] During the 2001 federal election campaign in Australia, there was a controversy regarding Afghan asylum seekers arriving on unauthorized vessels, there having been several widely publicized landings of hundreds of people.

With over 90% of some television polls supporting the government's stance, the leader of the ALP Kim Beazley chose to go against the majority and agree to the former policy—though it ended up opposing certain elements of proposed legislation, which the Liberal Party framed as weak on border security.

It was later claimed that the controversial campaign strategists Lynton Crosby and Mark Textor had an active role in making the Tampa incident a wedge issue for Howard to exploit.

[10] President Joe Biden is another example of a Democrat who voted in favor of DOMA,[11] but signed the bill's antithesis, the Respect for Marriage Act, into law over 20 years later.

After the election of Donald Trump in 2016, the views of American voters shifted to align more closely with their parties along partisan lines, reducing immigration policy's status as a wedge issue.

[13] Covid-19 served as wedge issue for both political parties in the 2020 US Presidential election, with both the Democratic and Republican electorate divided over whether candidates Joe Biden or Donald Trump could effectively handle the pandemic.

[15] Both Labour (PLP) and Conservative Members of Parliament struggled to handle internal divisions within their party in the beginning stages of Brexit policy decisions.

[16] In the 2005 New Zealand general election, the National Party sought to capitalize on the foreshore and seabed issue by employing wedge tactics to drive racial divisions between Mäori and Non-Mäori.