Q. The Speaker of the Federal Parliament Bronwyn Bishop was recently reported to have spent over $5,000 to take a helicopter to a function in Victoria. She has since repaid this money. Do you think she should remain in the position of Speaker, stand down while her expenses are being investigated, resign as Speaker or resign from Parliament?
Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote Other | ||
Remain in the position of Speaker | 19% | 13% | 34% | 6% | 19% | |
Stand down while an investigation is done | 25% | 20% | 30% | 31% | 25% | |
Resign as Speaker | 19% | 24% | 14% | 25% | 17% | |
Resign from Parliament | 24% | 35% | 11% | 30% | 28% | |
Don’t know | 13% | 8% | 11% | 9% | 11% |
Only 19% think Bronwyn Bishop should remain in the position of Speaker.
25% think she should stand down while her expenses are being investigated, 19% think she should resign as Speaker and 24% think she should resign from Parliament.
34% of Liberal/National voters think she should remain as Speaker – 25% think she should resign as Speaker or from Parliament. A majority of Labor voters (59%) and Greens voters (55%) think she should resign as Speaker or from Parliament
electricity costs, Electricity Prices
Q. Thinking about your electricity bill over the last 12 months, do you think you electricity bill has:
Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote Other | ||
Total decreased | 9% | 10% | 10% | 12% | 9% | |
Total increased | 51% | 58% | 51% | 46% | 48% | |
Decreased a lot | 1% | 1% | 1% | 3% | 1% | |
Decreased a little | 8% | 9% | 9% | 9% | 8% | |
Stayed much the same | 33% | 28% | 32% | 35% | 37% | |
Increased a little | 29% | 31% | 30% | 31% | 25% | |
Increased a lot | 22% | 27% | 21% | 15% | 23% | |
Don’t know | 7% | 4% | 7% | 8% | 6% |
51% think their electricity bill over the last 12 months has increased, 33% think it has stayed about the same and 9% think it has decreased.
There were not substantial differences by voting intention or demographics – although Labor voters (58%) were a little more likely to think it had increased.
Q. Do you believe that the carbon tax, before it was repealed last year, had a big impact, a small impact or no impact on electricity prices?
Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote Other | ||
Had a big impact | 21% | 15% | 30% | 15% | 22% | |
Had a small impact | 41% | 43% | 42% | 39% | 46% | |
Had no impact | 20% | 27% | 12% | 33% | 21% | |
Don’t know | 18% | 15% | 17% | 14% | 11% |
Only 21% believe that the carbon tax had a big impact on electricity prices before it was repealed a year ago. 41% think it had a small impact and 20% think it had no impact.
Although there were some differences by voting intention, they were not large. Liberal/National voters were more likely to think it had a big impact (30%) and Labor voters and Greens voters were more likely to think it had no impact (27% and 33%).
Q. Do you think people who are required to work outside of normal hours – like night shifts, weekends or public holidays – should receive a higher hourly rate of pay?
Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote Other | Work full time | Work part time | May 2013 | Jan 2015 | ||||
Yes | 81% | 90% | 73% | 81% | 82% | 76% | 85% | 81% | 81% | |||
No | 13% | 8% | 20% | 9% | 11% | 15% | 9% | 12% | 13% | |||
Don’t know | 7% | 3% | 7% | 10% | 7% | 8% | 6% | 7% | 6% |
81% think that people who are required to work outside of normal hours should receive a higher hourly rate of pay and 13% think they should not. There has been no change of opinion on this issue since this question was first asked in May 2013.
A large majority of all demographic and voter groups agree that worker should receive higher rates for working outside normal hours – although Labor voters (90%) and Greens voters (81%) are somewhat more likely to support this than Liberal/National voters (73%). 85% of part-time workers agree compared to 76% of full-time workers.
Q. What do you think would be the more likely result of cutting penalty rates for hospitality and retail workers?
Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/ Nat |
Vote Greens | Vote Other | Work full time | Work part time | Jan 2015 | ||||
Businesses will make bigger profits | 61% | 74% | 50% | 68% | 68% | 57% | 58% | 63% | |||
Businesses will employ more workers | 20% | 12% | 31% | 18% | 23% | 27% | 17% | 18% | |||
Don’t know | 19% | 14% | 19% | 13% | 10% | 16% | 25% | 18% |
61% think that cutting penalty rates will more likely result in businesses making bigger profits while 20% think the more likely result will be that businesses will employ more workers – a similar result to the last time this question was asked in January.
A substantial majority of all demographic groups believe it will more likely result in bigger profits for businesses. Those most likely to think it will mean businesses will make bigger profits were Labor voters (74%), Greens voters (68%) and incomes less than $1,000 pw (67%)
Only Liberal/National voters have a somewhat different view – 50% think it is more likely to result in bigger profits and 31% more jobs.
Q. Would you support or oppose the following tax reforms to raise more funds for Government services and infrastructure?
Total support | Total oppose | Strongly support | Support | Oppose | Strongly oppose | Don’t know | Total supp. Mar 2015 | Total opp. Mar 2015 | |||
Force multi-national companies to pay a minimum tax rate on Australian earnings | 79% | 9% | 51% | 28% | 6% | 3% | 13% | 76% | 8% | ||
Increase income tax rate for high earners | 63% | 24% | 30% | 33% | 15% | 9% | 13% | 65% | 23% | ||
Remove super-annuation tax concessions for high earners | 59% | 25% | 30% | 29% | 15% | 10% | 17% | 55% | 25% | ||
Remove negative gearing | 37% | 33% | 17% | 20% | 18% | 15% | 31% | 33% | 30% | ||
Replace stamp duty with land tax | 26% | 32% | 7% | 19% | 20% | 12% | 42% | 24% | 34% | ||
Remove GST exemptions (e.g. food) | 33% | 55% | 14% | 19% | 24% | 31% | 14% | 36% | 51% | ||
Increase the GST | 24% | 65% | 6% | 18% | 29% | 36% | 11% | 19% | 70% |
There was strong majority support for forcing multinational companies to pay a minimum tax rate on Australian earnings (79%), increasing income tax rate for high earners (63%) and removing superannuation tax concessions for high earners (59%).
There was strong majority opposition to increasing the GST (65%).
Q. Would you support or oppose increasing the GST if income taxes were reduced at the same time?
Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote Other | ||
Total support | 38% | 30% | 52% | 32% | 39% | |
Total oppose | 42% | 52% | 33% | 57% | 43% | |
Strongly support | 10% | 7% | 17% | 5% | 6% | |
Support | 28% | 23% | 35% | 27% | 33% | |
Oppose | 23% | 26% | 21% | 23% | 25% | |
Strongly oppose | 19% | 26% | 12% | 24% | 18% | |
Don’t know | 20% | 18% | 15% | 20% | 18% |
38% support increasing the GST if income taxes were reduced at the same time and 42% oppose.
A majority (52%) of Liberal/National voters support increasing GST and a majority of Labor (52%) and Greens voters (57%) oppose.
For those on higher incomes ($1,600+ pw), 50% support and 32% oppose.
Q. If you had to choose, which of the following tax reforms to raise more funds for Government services and infrastructure would you favour?
Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote Other | ||
Increasing the GST | 35% | 29% | 47% | 34% | 34% | |
Increasing the Medicare levy | 33% | 40% | 26% | 39% | 33% | |
Don’t know | 32% | 31% | 27% | 27% | 33% |
Given the choice of increasing the GST or increasing the Medicare levy, 35% favour increasing the GST and 33% favour increasing the Medicare levy. 32% could not choose.
Labor voters favoured increasing the Medicare levy (40%) while Liberal/National voters favoured increasing the GST (47%).
Those on low incomes (under $600 pw) favoured increasing the Medicare levy (45% to 22%) while those on higher incomes ($1,600+ pw) favoured increasing the GST (50% to 27%).