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Australian troops in Afghanistan

21 Nov 2011

Q.  Thinking about the Australian troops in Afghanistan, do you think Australia should –

25 Oct 2010 21 Mar 2011 29 Aug 2011 Total Vote Labor Vote Lib/Nat Vote Greens
Increase the number of troops in Afghanistan 10% 5% 4% 3% 3% 4% 3%
Keep the same number of troops in Afghanistan 30% 30% 26% 22% 21% 29% 11%
Withdraw our troops from Afghanistan 47% 56% 64% 64% 66% 57% 76%
Don’t know 14% 9% 7% 11% 10% 10% 10%

64% (no change) think Australia should withdraw our troops from Afghanistan, 22% (down 4%) think we should maintain troop numbers and 3% (down 1%) think we should increase them.

Since October last year, support for withdrawal of Australian troops has increased from 47% to 64%. There was majority support for withdrawal by all voting groups – 57% of Lib/Nat voters, 66% Labor and 76% Greens. Support for withdrawal was also similar across age groups but women were more likely than men to support withdrawal of troops (72% to 55%).

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