| Liberal | Labor | Difference | ||
| Divided | 79% | 46% | +33 | |
| Too close to the big corporate and financial interests | 67% | 36% | +31 | |
| Out of touch with ordinary people | 69% | 51% | +18 | |
| Extreme | 40% | 36% | +4 | |
| Will promise to do anything to win votes | 68% | 70% | -2 | |
| Moderate | 48% | 50% | -2 | |
| Keeps its promises | 28% | 30% | -2 | |
| Have good policies | 40% | 43% | -3 | |
| Trustworthy | 30% | 34% | -4 | |
| Have a vision for the future | 43% | 48% | -5 | |
| Understands the problems facing Australia | 40% | 48% | -8 | |
| Has a good team of leaders | 31% | 39% | -8 | |
| Clear about what they stand for | 33% | 47% | -14 | |
| Looks after the interests of working people | 32% | 55% | -23 |
The Labor Party is viewed more favourably in terms of looking after the interests of working people (-23), clear about what they stand for (-14), and not being divided (+33), too close to the big corporate and financial interests (+31) or out of touch with ordinary people (+18).
Q. Do you approve or disapprove of Scott Morrison replacing Malcolm Turnbull as leader of the Liberal Party?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | |||
| Total approve | 35% | 29% | 56% | 20% | 35% | ||
| Total disapprove | 40% | 50% | 28% | 56% | 40% | ||
| Strongly approve | 10% | 9% | 16% | 4% | 11% | ||
| Approve | 25% | 20% | 40% | 16% | 24% | ||
| Disapprove | 22% | 24% | 23% | 26% | 20% | ||
| Strongly disapprove | 18% | 26% | 5% | 30% | 20% | ||
| Don’t know | 25% | 20% | 16% | 24% | 26% |
35% approved of Scott Morrison replacing Malcolm Turnbull as leader of the Liberal Party and 40% disapproved.
56% of Liberal National voters approved and 28% disapproved. 50% of Labor voters and 56% of Greens voters disapproved.
Q. Do you agree or disagree with the following statements?
| Total agree | Total disagree | Strongly agree | Agree | Disagree | Strongly disagree | Don’t know | ||
| Scott Morrison should call an early election | 52% | 30% | 28% | 24% | 20% | 10% | 18% | |
| Scott Morrison should be given the chance to show he can do a better job of governing Australia | 56% | 29% | 19% | 37% | 17% | 12% | 15% | |
| The leadership change makes no difference to the Liberal Party’s ability to govern Australia | 48% | 35% | 19% | 29% | 23% | 12% | 16% | |
| The Liberal Party is divided and no longer fit to govern Australia | 57% | 27% | 31% | 26% | 20% | 7% | 16% |
There was majority (56%) agreement that Scott Morrison should be given a chance to show he can govern Australia.
However, more than half agreed that he should call an early election – and that the Liberal Party is no longer fit to govern. 70% of Labor voters and 73% of Greens voters agreed he should call and early election – and 33% of LNP voters agreed compared to 56% disagree.
48% agreed that the leadership change makes no difference to the Liberal Party’s ability to govern and 35% disagreed.
Q. Which of the following do you think would make the best leader of the Liberal Party?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | Jun 2014 | Aug 2015 | Mar 2016 | Aug 2017 | Dec 2017 | Apr 2018 | Jul 2018 | |||
| Julie Bishop | 23% | 24% | 25% | 28% | 20% | 4% | 17% | 12% | 20% | 19% | 17% | 16% | ||
| Malcolm Turnbull | 15% | 20% | 18% | 15% | 5% | 31% | 24% | 39% | 25% | 21% | 24% | 28% | ||
| Scott Morrison | 10% | 5% | 22% | 1% | 7% | 1% | 3% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | ||
| Tony Abbott | 9% | 6% | 12% | 2% | 17% | 18% | 18% | 9% | 10% | 10% | 11% | 10% | ||
| Peter Dutton | 4% | 3% | 3% | 4% | 8% | 3% | 4% | 3% | 5% | |||||
| Christopher Pyne | 1% | 1% | 1% | 3% | 1% | <1% | 1% | 1% | 3% | 2% | 2% | 2% | ||
| Someone else | 13% | 17% | 4% | 21% | 22% | 19% | 13% | 15% | 13% | 15% | 14% | 14% | ||
| Don’t know | 25% | 22% | 14% | 26% | 20% | 21% | 22% | 21% | 25% | 27% | 27% | 24% |
23% (up 7% since July) think Julie Bishop would make the best leader of the Liberal Party, 15% prefer Malcolm Turnbull (down 13%), 10% Scott Morrison (up 8%) and 9% prefer Tony Abbott (down 1%). 13% (down 1%) prefer someone else.
Among Liberal/National voters, 25% prefer Julie Bishop (up 11%), 22% Scott Morrison (up 20%), 18% Malcolm Turnbull (down 33%) and 12% Tony Abbott (up 1%).
Q. Who do you think would make the better Prime Minister out of Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | Aug 2018 | Jul 2018 | Jun 2018 | Mar 2018 | Dec 2017 | Sep 2017 | Jun 2017 | Mar 2017 | Dec 2016 | |||
| Scott Morrison | 39% | 17% | 76% | 17% | 40% | 41% | 42% | 41% | 41% | 42% | 43% | 39% | 38% | 39% | ||
| Bill Shorten | 29% | 57% | 8% | 49% | 15% | 27% | 25% | 27% | 26% | 28% | 29% | 26% | 26% | 28% | ||
| Don’t know | 32% | 25% | 16% | 34% | 45% | 31% | 34% | 32% | 33% | 31% | 28% | 34% | 36% | 33% |
39% thought that Scott Morrison would make the better Prime Minister (down 2% from Malcolm Turnbull’s rating last month), and 29% thought Bill Shorten would be better (up 2%). 32% did not know who would make a better Prime Minister.
The results were split by party, with 76% of Liberal/National voters saying that Scott Morrison would be a better Prime Minister, and 57% of Labor voters saying Bill Shorten would.
Greens voters preferred Bill Shorten (49%) to Scott Morrison (17%).
43% of men prefer Scott Morrison and 31% prefer Bill Shorten.
34% of women prefer Scott Morrison and 27% prefer Bill Shorten.
Note: figures up to August 2018 refer to Malcolm Turnbull vs Bill Shorten
Q. Would you support or oppose the following policies?
| Total support | Total oppose | Strongly support | Support | Oppose | Strongly oppose | Don’t know | ||
| Withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement on reducing emissions | 32% | 46% | 14% | 18% | 21% | 25% | 23% | |
| Funding more coal-fired power stations | 41% | 41% | 14% | 27% | 20% | 21% | 17% | |
| Cutting immigration numbers | 62% | 27% | 33% | 29% | 17% | 10% | 11% | |
| Expanding short-term work visas | 34% | 46% | 8% | 26% | 27% | 19% | 20% | |
| Cutting the tax rate for big businesses | 25% | 62% | 6% | 19% | 25% | 37% | 13% | |
| Cutting the tax rate for people earning over $200,000 | 23% | 64% | 6% | 17% | 28% | 36% | 13% |
There was strong majority support for cutting immigration – including 55% of Labor voters and 78% of LNP voters. A majority opposed cutting tax rates for big businesses (62% oppose) and wealthy people (64% oppose).
Respondents were more likely to oppose withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement and expanding short-term work visas.
They were split (41%/41%) over funding more coal-fired power stations.
Q. How often do you gamble in the following ways?
| Regularly (more than once a month) | Some-times (up to 10 times a year) | Rarely (no more than once a year) | Never | Not sure | Reg/ some Men | Reg/ some women | Reg/ some aged 18-34 | Reg/ some aged 35-54 | Reg/ some aged 55+ | ||
| Racing (horse, greyhounds) | 9% | 10% | 19% | 58% | 3% | 28% | 10% | 27% | 16% | 15% | |
| Poker machines | 6% | 17% | 21% | 53% | 3% | 29% | 16% | 27% | 21% | 22% | |
| Cards | 4% | 7% | 9% | 77% | 3% | 16% | 7% | 23% | 10% | 1% | |
| Sporting events (football etc) | 9% | 9% | 10% | 70% | 2% | 29% | 8% | 30% | 19% | 6% |
19% regularly or sometimes gamble on racing, 23% play poker machines, 11% gamble on card games and 18% gamble on sport.
Men are more than twice as likely as women to gamble on racing, cards and sport.
Poker machines are used across all age groups, while those aged 18-34 are more likely to gamble on racing, cards and sport.
Q. Would you support or oppose each of the following?
| Total support | Strongly support | Support | Oppose | Strongly oppose | Don’t know | ||
| Reduce maximum bet on poker machines to $1 as recommended by PC. | 63% | 27% | 36% | 10% | 5% | 21% | |
| Reduce trading hours of venues that have poker machines | 60% | 27% | 33% | 18% | 5% | 16% | |
| Regulation to make poker machine design less addictive | 71% | 35% | 36% | 10% | 3% | 16% | |
| Restrict poker machines to designated venues such as casinos | 64% | 34% | 30% | 17% | 6% | 14% | |
| Ban gambling advertising during sports matches | 69% | 39% | 30% | 12% | 4% | 16% | |
| Place bans on gambling companies and gambling outlets like clubs making political donations (as developers have in some states) | 68% | 38% | 30% | 12% | 3% | 17% | |
| Place a levy of gambling companies and venues using poker machines to fund anti-gambling awareness campaigns and services for victims. | 69% | 35% | 34% | 9% | 4% | 19% |
There was at least 60% support for all policies listed. There was highest support for Regulation to make poker machine design less addictive (71%). There was lowest support for reducing trading hours of venues that have poker machines (60%).
There was also majority support for all policies from each of the regular/sometime gambling groups. In fact, gamblers were more in favour of the most policies than non-gamblers.
| Total support | Gamble reg/some Racing | Gamble reg/some Poker machines | Gamble reg/some Cards | Gamble reg/some Sport | ||
| Reduce maximum bet on poker machines to $1 as recommended by PC. | 63% | 73% | 69% | 77% | 75% | |
| Reduce trading hours of venues that have poker machines | 60% | 65% | 59% | 73% | 64% | |
| Regulation to make poker machine design less addictive | 71% | 74% | 71% | 77% | 78% | |
| Restrict poker machines to designated venues such as casinos | 64% | 68% | 57% | 76% | 72% | |
| Ban gambling advertising during sports matches | 69% | 64% | 65% | 69% | 64% | |
| Place bans on gambling companies and gambling outlets like clubs making political donations (as developers have in some states) | 68% | 69% | 71% | 61% | 69% | |
| Place a levy of gambling companies and venues using poker machines to fund anti-gambling awareness campaigns and services for victims. | 69% | 69% | 69% | 69% | 68% |