Q. Do you think Australia should or should not continue to expand our coal industry – including approving new mines and building railway lines and ports?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote Other | Dec 2014 | |||
| Should continue to expand | 38% | 31% | 55% | 14% | 39% | 34% | ||
| Should not continue to expand | 33% | 41% | 20% | 69% | 37% | 40% | ||
| Don’t know | 29% | 28% | 25% | 17% | 24% | 26% |
The largest proportion of Australians (38%) believe that the coal industry should continue to expand. However this was closely followed by a significant proportion (33%) who thought it should not expand.
29% don’t know if the coal industry should expand or not.
55% of Coalition voters believe the coal industry should expand, compared to just 31% of Labor and 14% of Greens voters.
Males (43%) were more likely than females (33%) to think that the coal industry should expand.
Compared to December 2014 there has been a drop in the number of people saying the coal industry should not expand (from 40% down to 33%), but only a small rise in those saying it should.