Q. Would you approve or disapprove of the Government giving support to new coal-fired power stations, including indemnifying them against the future risk of a carbon price?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | ||
| Total approve | 39% | 33% | 58% | 17% | 43% | |
| Total disapprove | 35% | 40% | 25% | 65% | 36% | |
| Strongly approve | 14% | 10% | 23% | 2% | 21% | |
| Approve | 25% | 23% | 35% | 15% | 22% | |
| Disapprove | 16% | 15% | 18% | 20% | 14% | |
| Strongly disapprove | 19% | 25% | 7% | 45% | 22% | |
| Don’t know | 26% | 27% | 17% | 18% | 22% |
39% approve of the Government giving support to new coal-fired power stations, including indemnifying them against the future risk of a carbon price and 35% disapprove.
A majority of Liberal/National voters approve (58%) while 65% of Greens voters disapprove. Labor voters were split 33% approve/40% disapprove.
47% of men approve and 36% disapprove – while 30% of women approve and 34% disapprove.
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?
| Q | Total | 2 weeks ago
9/10/18 |
4 weeks ago 25/9/18 | Election 2 Jul 16 | ||
| Liberal | 36% | 34% | 34% | |||
| National | 2% | 4% | 3% | |||
| Total Liberal/National | 38% | 38% | 37% | 42.0% | ||
| Labor | 37% | 37% | 36% | 34.7% | ||
| Greens | 10% | 10% | 12% | 10.2% | ||
| Pauline Hanson’s One Nation | 7% | 7% | 5% | |||
| Other/Independent | 8% | 9% | 10% | 13.1% | ||
| 2 party preferred | ||||||
| Liberal National | 47% | 47% | 47% | 50.4% | ||
| Labor | 53% | 53% | 53% | 49.6% |
Q. Which of the following issues are the most important for the Federal Government to address over the next 12 months? Select up to 3.
| Total | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote Other | April 2018 | Change | |||
| Cost of living | 60% | 31% | 18% | 11% | 60% | 56% | 54% | 68% | 51% | +9 | ||
| Improving our health system | 37% | 9% | 15% | 13% | 40% | 35% | 39% | 38% | 36% | +1 | ||
| Housing affordability | 29% | 8% | 12% | 10% | 33% | 22% | 34% | 25% | 29% | – | ||
| Creating jobs and reducing unemployment | 27% | 10% | 9% | 9% | 30% | 27% | 24% | 18% | 32% | -5 | ||
| Improving workers wages and conditions | 22% | 5% | 7% | 9% | 27% | 20% | 24% | 16% | 22% | – | ||
| Promoting economic growth | 20% | 6% | 8% | 6% | 16% | 29% | 11% | 18% | 21% | -1 | ||
| National security and terrorism | 20% | 6% | 5% | 8% | 12% | 26% | 8% | 29% | 21% | -1 | ||
| Promoting renewable energy | 20% | 7% | 5% | 7% | 21% | 17% | 44% | 21% | 19% | +1 | ||
| Tax avoidance by big companies | 17% | 4% | 6% | 6% | 18% | 16% | 22% | 20% | 20% | -3 | ||
| Reducing the budget deficit | 13% | 5% | 4% | 5% | 7% | 22% | 7% | 16% | 14% | -1 | ||
| More funds for education | 13% | 3% | 3% | 7% | 18% | 7% | 22% | 13% | 13% | – | ||
| Income tax cuts | 12% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 10% | 15% | 6% | 13% | 15% | -3 | ||
| Business tax cuts | 5% | 2% | 1% | 2% | 5% | 7% | 7% | 2% | 6% | -1 |
The most important issues for the Federal Government to address over the next 12 months were –
Labor voters were more likely to think Improving workers wages and conditions (27%) was important.
Liberal/National voters were more likely to think promoting economic growth (29%) and reducing the budget deficit (22%) were important.
Greens voters were more likely to think promoting renewable energy (44%) and more funds for education (22%) were important.
Since this question was asked in April, there has been a substantial increase for cost of living – up 9 points to 60%.
Q. Thinking about the recent change of Prime Minister, do you consider the Morrison Government too be a new government or has the change made no difference and they are still the same government?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote Other | ||
| They are a new Government | 20% | 14% | 34% | 13% | 12% | |
| They are the same Government | 59% | 71% | 48% | 72% | 76% | |
| Not sure | 22% | 15% | 17% | 15% | 12% |
59% think that the leadership change has made no difference and that we still have the same Government. 20% think of it as a new Government.
Liberal National voters were split but more likely to think it is the same Government (48% to 34%).
Q. Who would you prefer as Prime Minister out of Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote Other | ||
| Scott Morrison | 35% | 23% | 57% | 19% | 40% | |
| Malcolm Turnbull | 28% | 36% | 29% | 39% | 21% | |
| Don’t know | 36% | 41% | 14% | 43% | 39% |
35% prefer Scott Morrison as Prime Minister and 28% prefer Malcolm Turnbull. Labor and Greens voters were more likely to prefer Malcolm Turnbull but Liberal voters preferred Scott Morrison by 57% to 29%.
Q. Do you believe that there is fairly conclusive evidence that climate change is happening and caused by human activity or do you believe that the evidence is still not in and we may just be witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate which happens from time to time?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | Nov 2009 | Dec 2010 | Jun 2011 | Oct 2012 | Oct 2013 | Dec 2014 | Nov 2015 | Aug 2016 | Sep 2017 | |||
| Climate change is happening and is caused by human activity | 63% | 73% | 57% | 78% | 47% | 53% | 45% | 50% | 48% | 52% | 57% | 56% | 57% | 64% | ||
| We are just witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate | 25% | 15% | 34% | 12% | 45% | 34% | 36% | 39% | 39% | 36% | 29% | 32% | 26% | 24% | ||
| Don’t know | 13% | 12% | 9% | 10% | 8% | 13% | 19% | 12% | 13% | 12% | 14% | 12% | 17% | 12% |
63% (down 1% since September last year) agree that climate change is happening and is caused by human activity and 25% (up 1%) believe that we may just be witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate.
By age groups, those aged under 35 split 66%/19% and those aged 55+ split 56%/37%. People with higher education were more likely to think climate change is happening and is caused by human activity – those with university degrees split 70%/20%.
Q. As far as you know, do you think Australia is doing enough, not enough or too much to address climate change?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | Aug 2015 | Mar 2016 | Aug 2016 | Dec 2016 | Sep 2017 | |||
| Doing enough | 23% | 16% | 36% | 5% | 24% | 24% | 21% | 22% | 22% | 20% | ||
| Not doing enough | 56% | 69% | 45% | 88% | 45% | 53% | 57% | 52% | 49% | 56% | ||
| Doing too much | 7% | 3% | 9% | 2% | 21% | 7% | 8% | 8% | 11% | 8% | ||
| Don’t know | 13% | 12% | 10% | 5% | 9% | 16% | 13% | 18% | 18% | 16% |
56% (no change since September last year) think Australia is not doing enough to address climate change and 23% (up 3%) think Australia is doing enough.
Those most likely to think Australia is not doing enough were aged 18-44 (61%) and university educated (65%).
Liberal National voters were split but were more likely to think the Government was not doing enough (45%).
Q. Here are some things that the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison has suggested or given his support to. Do you approve or disapprove of each of them?
| Total approve | Total dis-approve | Strongly approve | Approve | Dis-approve | Strongly dis-approve | Don’t know | Approve
Vote Labor |
Approve Vote Lib/Nat | Approve Vote Greens | Approve Vote other | ||||
| Relocate the Australian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem | 26% | 32% | 7% | 19% | 16% | 16% | 42% | 19% | 40% | 19% | 29% | |||
| Force immigrants to move to regional areas | 51% | 32% | 16% | 35% | 20% | 12% | 17% | 46% | 69% | 30% | 60% | |||
| Commemorate Captain Cook’s discovery of Australia | 58% | 20% | 20% | 38% | 11% | 9% | 22% | 55% | 76% | 40% | 63% | |||
There was majority approval for commemorating Captain Cook’s discovery of Australia (58%) and forcing immigrants to move to regional areas (51%). However, there was strong majority disapproval of allowing religious schools to refuse to hire gay teachers (609%).
Respondents were split on the issue of relocating the Australian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – 26% approve, 32% disapprove with 42% don’t know.