Q. Thinking about some of the major decisions the Federal Government has made over the years, do you think the following decisions have been good for Australia or bad for Australia?
| Total good | Total bad | Very good | Good | Neither good nor bad | Bad | Very bad | Don’t know | Total Good (Oct 2016) | ||
| Compulsory superannuation | 75% | 5% | 39% | 36% | 12% | 3% | 2% | 8% | 71% | |
| Medibank (Now Medicare) | 56% | 14% | 26% | 30% | 19% | 9% | 5% | 11% | 63% | |
| Introducing the GST | 43% | 24% | 11% | 32% | 24% | 14% | 10% | 9% | 46% | |
| Free trade agreements | 41% | 16% | 10% | 31% | 27% | 9% | 7% | 17% | 38% | |
| Floating the dollar | 37% | 10% | 10% | 27% | 27% | 7% | 3% | 25% | 33% | |
| Reducing subsidies to car manufacturing | 35% | 25% | 10% | 25% | 24% | 17% | 8% | 16% | 28% | |
| Privatising Qantas | 31% | 29% | 6% | 25% | 24% | 19% | 10% | 15% | 28% | |
| Privatising Telstra | 27% | 39% | 6% | 21% | 20% | 23% | 16% | 13% | 22% | |
| Privatising the Commonwealth Bank | 26% | 34% | 7% | 19% | 24% | 19% | 15% | 16% | 24% |
The least popular government initiative was privatising Telstra, which 39% thought was bad. Those most likely to think this decision was bad were South Australians (57% bad), other party/independent voters (55%) and those aged 55-64 (53%).The most popular government initiative listed was compulsory superannuation, which 75% thought was good. Those most likely to think this decision was good were those aged 65+ (86% good), Liberal/National voters (85%) and Western Australians (82%). 11% of other party/independent voters thought compulsory superannuation was bad.
The largest changes since this question was last asked in October 2016 were for Medibank/Medicare, approval for which dropped by 7%, and reducing car manufacturing subsidies, approval for which increased by 7%.