Q. The Federal Budget will be announced on Tuesday 8th Do you think the Government should increase, decrease or keep spending the same for –
| Increase spending | Keep spending the same | Decrease spending | Don’t know | Increase spending May 2017 | Change since May 2017 | ||
| Health care | 67% | 25% | 3% | 5% | 62% | +5 | |
| Age pensions | 56% | 31% | 5% | 8% | 48% | +8 | |
| Education | 55% | 33% | 6% | 6% | 54% | +1 | |
| More affordable housing | 52% | 36% | 6% | 6% | 44% | +8 | |
| Assistance to the needy in Australia | 46% | 41% | 7% | 7% | 38% | +8 | |
| Protecting Australian jobs | 44% | 43% | 6% | 7% | 44% | – | |
| Renewable energy | 43% | 39% | 12% | 6% | 41% | +2 | |
| Public transport infrastructure | 41% | 44% | 8% | 7% | 47% | -6 | |
| Building highways, roads | 37% | 48% | 9% | 6% | 38% | +1 | |
| Scientific research | 36% | 48% | 9% | 7% | 37% | -1 | |
| Environmental protection | 35% | 44% | 15% | 6% | 30% | +5 | |
| Assistance to the unemployed | 33% | 44% | 17% | 6% | 22% | +11 | |
| Anti-terrorism | 31% | 51% | 11% | 7% | 32% | -1 | |
| Military/defence | 20% | 50% | 23% | 7% | 20% | – | |
| Assistance to businesses | 13% | 47% | 33% | 7% | 10% | +3 | |
| Assistance to the needy in the rest of the world | 12% | 33% | 48% | 7% | 11% | +1 |
The areas with majority support for increasing spending were health care (67% support), age pensions (56%), education (55%) and affordable housing (52%).
Since this time last year, the main changes have been increased support for spending on assistance to the unemployed (up 11%), age pensions (up 8%), more affordable housing (up 8%) and assistance to the needy in Australia (up 8%).
The areas with the highest support for decreasing spending were assistance to the needy in the rest of the world (48% support), assistance to businesses (33%) and military/defence (23%).