Q. Who do you think would make the better Prime Minister out of Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | Sep 2015 | Dec 2015 | Mar 2016 | Jun 2016 | Sep 2016 | Dec 2016 | Jan 2017 | Feb 2017 | Mar
2017 |
|||
| Malcolm Turnbull | 39% | 13% | 83% | 9% | 39% | 53% | 54% | 48% | 40% | 41% | 39% | 39% | 39% | 38% | ||
| Bill Shorten | 28% | 60% | 4% | 56% | 16% | 17% | 15% | 19% | 29% | 26% | 28% | 28% | 25% | 26% | ||
| Don’t know | 32% | 27% | 13% | 36% | 46% | 30% | 31% | 33% | 32% | 33% | 33% | 33% | 36% | 36% |
39% (up 1% in last 4 weeks) of respondents think Malcolm Turnbull would make the better Prime Minister and 28% (up 2%) think Bill Shorten would make the better Prime Minister.
46% of men prefer Malcolm Turnbull and 29% prefer Bill Shorten.
32% of women prefer Malcolm Turnbull and 28% prefer Bill Shorten.
Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the Government’s decision to give $24 billion worth of tax cuts to businesses with annual turnover of up to $50 million?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | ||
| Total approve | 31% | 19% | 59% | 11% | 34% | |
| Total disapprove | 50% | 68% | 27% | 72% | 52% | |
| Strongly approve | 7% | 2% | 17% | 2% | 5% | |
| Approve | 24% | 17% | 42% | 9% | 29% | |
| Disapprove | 26% | 31% | 20% | 28% | 27% | |
| Strongly disapprove | 24% | 37% | 7% | 44% | 25% | |
| Don’t know | 19% | 14% | 15% | 17% | 13% |
31% approve of the Government’s decision to give tax cuts to businesses with turnover less than $50 million and 50% disapprove.
Liberal/National voters were the only voter or demographic group showing majority approval (59%).
Those most likely to disapprove were Greens voters (72%), Labor voters (68%) and aged 45-64 (60%).
Q. Would you approve or disapprove of giving a similar tax cut to businesses with annual turnover of more then $50 million?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | ||
| Total approve | 20% | 17% | 35% | 8% | 18% | |
| Total disapprove | 60% | 70% | 46% | 78% | 68% | |
| Strongly approve | 4% | 3% | 8% | 2% | 1% | |
| Approve | 16% | 14% | 27% | 6% | 17% | |
| Disapprove | 26% | 24% | 33% | 22% | 24% | |
| Strongly disapprove | 34% | 46% | 13% | 56% | 44% | |
| Don’t know | 20% | 14% | 19% | 15% | 13% |
20% would approve of giving similar tax cuts to businesses with turnover more than $50 million and 60% would disapprove.
On this issue Liberal/National voters were more likely to disapprove (35% approve/46% disapprove).
Those most likely to disapprove were Greens voters (78%), Labor voters (70%) and aged 45+ (67%).
Q. What do you think will be the more likely result of tax cuts for businesses?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | ||
| Businesses will make bigger profits | 57% | 73% | 41% | 78% | 61% | |
| Businesses will employ more workers | 26% | 14% | 49% | 8% | 25% | |
| Don’t know | 17% | 13% | 10% | 14% | 14% |
57% think that tax cuts for businesses will be more likely to lead to bigger profits and 26% think it is more likely to result in more workers employed.
Those most likely to think it will lead to bigger profits were Greens voters (78%), Labor voters (73%), aged 45-64 (63%) and university educated (63%).
Q. Do you think things are getting better or worse for you and you family in terms of the following?
| Total better | Total worse | Getting a lot better | Getting a little better | Staying much the same | Getting a little worse | Getting a lot worse | Don’t know | ||
| Housing affordability | 9% | 62% | 4% | 5% | 21% | 22% | 40% | 9% | |
| Cost of electricity and gas | 6% | 74% | 2% | 4% | 17% | 32% | 42% | 3% | |
| Your general standard of living | 13% | 49% | 3% | 10% | 36% | 32% | 17% | 2% | |
| Your income | 13% | 36% | 2% | 11% | 47% | 19% | 17% | 4% | |
| Your job security * | 14% | 31% | 3% | 11% | 52% | 17% | 14% | 3% | |
| Work-family balance * | 17% | 32% | 4% | 13% | 48% | 19% | 13% | 3% | |
| Your overall quality of life | 17% | 34% | 3% | 14% | 46% | 22% | 12% | 2% | |
| The quality of political representation | 7% | 60% | 2% | 5% | 26% | 27% | 33% | 8% |
* based on people working
Respondents tended to be pessimistic about all items measured. They were particularly negative about the cost of electricity and gas (74% getting worse), housing affordability (62%) and their general standard of living (49%). Income, job security, work-family balance and overall quality of life were more likely to be staying much the same.
Q. If a Federal Election was held today to which party will you probably give your first preference vote? If not sure, which party are you currently leaning toward? If don’t know – Well which party are you currently leaning to?
| Total | Last week 28/3/17 | 2 weeks ago 21/3/17 | 4 weeks ago 7/3/17 | Election 2 Jul 16 | |||
| Liberal | 35% | 32% | 31% | 34% | |||
| National | 2% | 3% | 3% | 3% | |||
| Total Liberal/National | 37% | 35% | 34% | 37% | 42.0% | ||
| Labor | 36% | 37% | 37% | 37% | 34.7% | ||
| Greens | 10% | 10% | 9% | 9% | 10.2% | ||
| Nick Xenophon Team | 3% | 4% | 3% | 3% | |||
| Pauline Hanson’s One Nation | 8% | 8% | 10% | 9% | |||
| Other/Independent | 6% | 7% | 6% | 5% | 13.1% | ||
| 2 party preferred | |||||||
| Liberal National | 47% | 46% | 45% | 47% | 50.4% | ||
| Labor | 53% | 54% | 55% | 53% | 49.6% |
Q. The Racial Discrimination Act makes it an offence to “intimidate, humiliate, offend or insult” someone because of their race or ethnicity. It has been proposed to replace the words “humiliate, offend or insult” with “harass”. This means it will be unlawful to “harass or intimidate” someone because of their race or ethnicity but not unlawful to “humiliate, offend or insult”. Which of the following statements is closest to your view?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | ||
| I strongly support this change to the Racial Discrimination Act | 28% | 27% | 35% | 24% | 32% | |
| I strongly oppose this change to the Racial Discrimination Act | 27% | 31% | 20% | 55% | 25% | |
| I don’t have strong opinion on whether the Racial Discrimination Act should be changed or not | 28% | 27% | 31% | 13% | 30% | |
| Not sure | 17% | 15% | 13% | 8% | 13% |
55% say they have a strong opinion on changes to the Racial Discrimination Act. 28% strongly support the changes and 27% strongly oppose the changes. 28% don’t have strong opinion either way and 17% are not sure.
Those most likely to strongly support changes are Liberal/National voters (35%) and aged 65+ (37%).
Those most likely to strongly oppose changes are Greens voters (55%) and university educated (34%)
Q. Do you support or oppose introducing a carbon emissions trading scheme in the electricity sector to provide more incentive for investing in renewable energy and low-carbon electricity?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | ||
| Total support | 51% | 61% | 46% | 85% | 41% | |
| Total oppose | 20% | 13% | 27% | 4% | 38% | |
| Strongly support | 21% | 27% | 14% | 64% | 12% | |
| Support | 30% | 34% | 32% | 21% | 29% | |
| Oppose | 12% | 9% | 18% | 3% | 16% | |
| Strongly oppose | 8% | 4% | 9% | 1% | 22% | |
| Don’t know | 29% | 27% | 28% | 11% | 20% |
51% support introducing a carbon emissions trading scheme in the electricity sector and 20% oppose.
Those most likely to support a carbon emissions trading scheme were Labor voters (61%), Greens voters (85%) and university educated (59%).
Those most likely to oppose were Liberal/National voters (27%) and aged 55+ (31%).