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?
| Total | 2 weeks ago
31/7/18 |
4 weeks ago 17/7/18 | Election 2 Jul 16 | |||
| Liberal | 36% | 36% | 37% | |||
| National | 3% | 4% | 4% | |||
| Total Liberal/National | 39% | 41% | 40% | 42.0% | ||
| Labor | 37% | 36% | 36% | 34.7% | ||
| Greens | 10% | 10% | 10% | 10.2% | ||
| Nick Xenophon Team | 1% | 1% | 1% | |||
| Pauline Hanson’s One Nation | 6% | 6% | 6% | |||
| Other/Independent | 7% | 6% | 6% | 13.1% | ||
| 2 party preferred | ||||||
| Liberal National | 48% | 49% | 49% | 50.4% | ||
| Labor | 52% | 51% | 51% | 49.6% |
Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the job Malcolm Turnbull is doing as Prime Minister?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote Other | Jul 2018 | Jun 2018 | Mar 2018 | Dec 2017 | Sep 2017 | June 2017 | Mar 2017 | |||
| Total approve | 42% | 19% | 83% | 36% | 18% | 43% | 42% | 41% | 41% | 41% | 36% | 33% | ||
| Total disapprove | 42% | 67% | 10% | 46% | 70% | 40% | 42% | 43% | 44% | 46% | 45% | 50% | ||
| Strongly approve | 9% | 5% | 19% | 4% | 4% | 8% | 7% | 9% | 8% | 7% | 5% | 5% | ||
| Approve | 33% | 14% | 64% | 32% | 14% | 35% | 34% | 32% | 33% | 34% | 31% | 28% | ||
| Disapprove | 23% | 35% | 7% | 22% | 34% | 22% | 23% | 26% | 27% | 28% | 28% | 30% | ||
| Strongly disapprove | 19% | 32% | 3% | 24% | 36% | 18% | 18% | 17% | 17% | 18% | 17% | 20% | ||
| Don’t know | 16% | 14% | 7% | 17% | 13% | 17% | 16% | 16% | 15% | 14% | 19% | 18% |
42% approved of the job Malcolm Turnbull is doing as Prime Minister (down 1% from last month), and 42% disapproved (up 2%) – a change in net approval rating from +3 to 0.
83% (up 4%) of Liberal/National voters approved of the job Malcolm Turnbull is doing, compared to 19% of ALP voters, 36% of Greens and 18% of other voters.
By gender, men were 44% approve/44% disapprove and women 39% approve/39% disapprove.
Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the job Bill Shorten is doing as Opposition Leader?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | Jul 2018 | Jun 2018 | Mar 2018 | Dec 2017 | Sep 2017 | June 2017 | Mar 2017 | |||
| Total Approve | 34% | 65% | 18% | 45% | 13% | 31% | 33% | 37% | 36% | 36% | 34% | 30% | ||
| Total Disapprove | 44% | 14% | 69% | 33% | 69% | 47% | 46% | 44% | 45% | 47% | 43% | 49% | ||
| Strongly approve | 7% | 17% | 3% | 5% | 1% | 5% | 6% | 8% | 7% | 7% | 5% | 4% | ||
| Approve | 27% | 48% | 15% | 40% | 12% | 26% | 27% | 29% | 29% | 29% | 29% | 26% | ||
| Disapprove | 22% | 11% | 29% | 22% | 33% | 25% | 23% | 23% | 23% | 25% | 28% | 26% | ||
| Strongly disapprove | 22% | 3% | 40% | 11% | 36% | 22% | 23% | 21% | 22% | 22% | 15% | 23% | ||
| Don’t know | 22% | 21% | 12% | 21% | 18% | 21% | 21% | 19% | 19% | 17% | 23% | 22% |
34% approved of the job Bill Shorten is doing as Opposition Leader (up 3% from last month), and 44% disapproved (down 3%) – a change in net approval rating from -16 to -10.
65% (up 7%) of ALP voters approved of the job Bill Shorten is doing, compared to 45% of Greens voters and 18% of Liberal/National voters.
By gender, men were 37% approve/47% disapprove and women 30% approve/40% disapprove.
Q. Who do you think would make the better Prime Minister out of Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | Jul 2018 | Jun 2018 | Mar 2018 | Dec 2017 | Sep 2017 | June 2017 | Mar 2017 | Dec 2016 | |||
| Malcolm Turnbull | 41% | 14% | 84% | 28% | 34% | 42% | 41% | 41% | 42% | 43% | 39% | 38% | 39% | ||
| Bill Shorten | 27% | 59% | 4% | 40% | 19% | 25% | 27% | 26% | 28% | 29% | 26% | 26% | 28% | ||
| Don’t know | 31% | 26% | 12% | 32% | 47% | 34% | 32% | 33% | 31% | 28% | 34% | 36% | 33% |
41% thought that Malcolm Turnbull would make the better Prime Minister (down 1% from last month), and 27% thought Bill Shorten would be better (up 2%). 31% did not know who would make a better Prime Minister.
The results were split by party, with 84% of Liberal/National voters saying that Malcolm Turnbull would be a better Prime Minister, and 59% of Labor voters saying Bill Shorten would.
Greens voters preferred Bill Shorten (40%) to Malcolm Turnbull (28%).
45% of men prefer Malcolm Turnbull and 31% prefer Bill Shorten.
38% of women prefer Malcolm Turnbull and 23% prefer Bill Shorten.
Q. Do you think that the current drought across eastern Australia is likely or unlikely to be linked to climate change?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | |||
| Likely to be linked to climate change | 54% | 64% | 47% | 80% | 40% | ||
| Unlikely to be linked to climate change | 25% | 17% | 33% | 13% | 45% | ||
| Don’t know | 21% | 19% | 19% | 7% | 15% |
54% think that the current drought is likely to be linked to climate change and 25% think it is unlikely to be linked to climate change.
Those most likely to think it is linked to climate change were Greens voters (80%), Labor voters (64%), aged under 35 (62%) and university educated (62%).
Those thinking it is not linked to climate change were more likely to be other party voters (45%) and aged 65+ (40%).
Q. Do you approve or disapprove of governments giving the following types of financial support to these industries?
| Total approve | Total disapprove | Strongly approve | Approve | Disapprove | Strongly disapprove | Don’t know | 2014 approve | |||
| Agriculture – drought relief | 88% | 5% | 52% | 36% | 3% | 2% | 6% | 83% | ||
| Renewable energy – subsidies for wind and solar power | 76% | 15% | 39% | 37% | 8% | 7% | 9% | – | ||
| Health care – private health rebate | 73% | 14% | 30% | 43% | 9% | 5% | 12% | 72% | ||
| Tourism – development grants | 63% | 22% | 11% | 52% | 18% | 4% | 16% | 61% | ||
| Food processing – production subsidies | 55% | 24% | 12% | 43% | 19% | 5% | 21% | 55% | ||
| Film – production grants | 45% | 36% | 8% | 37% | 25% | 11% | 19% | 46% | ||
| Banks – guaranteeing debt | 37% | 42% | 9% | 28% | 23% | 19% | 20% | 36% | ||
| Real estate investment – negative gearing | 36% | 42% | 9% | 27% | 22% | 20% | 22% | 35% | ||
| Mining industry – fuel rebate | 33% | 44% | 8% | 25% | 27% | 17% | 23% | 26% |
There was majority approval of the Government giving financial support to agriculture (88% approve), renewable energy (76%), health care (73%), tourism (63%) and food processing (55%). Approval of drought relief has increased 5% since this question was asked in 2014.
Liberal/National voters are more likely than Labor voters to approve support for tourism (72% to 58%), food processing (62%/52%), banks (47%/33%), real estate (49%/32%) and mining (43%/30%).
Q. Do you think the merger of the media companies Nine and Fairfax will be good or bad for the following?
| Total good | Total bad | Very good | Good | Bad | Very bad | Don’t know | Vote Labor Good | Vote LNP Good | |||
| Quality of news coverage | 47% | 28% | 9% | 38% | 17% | 11% | 25% | 46% | 59% | ||
| Diversity of news media | 42% | 34% | 8% | 34% | 21% | 13% | 24% | 41% | 49% | ||
| Jobs in the media | 33% | 39% | 6% | 27% | 26% | 13% | 28% | 36% | 39% | ||
| News coverage in regional areas | 38% | 32% | 7% | 31% | 19% | 13% | 30% | 39% | 47% |
Overall, respondents were more likely to think the Nine/Fairfax merger would be good for quality of news coverage and diversity of news media. They were more evenly split on whether it was good or bad for jobs in media and news coverage in regional areas.
Liberal National voters were more likely to think it will be good for quality of news coverage, diversity of news media and news coverage in regional areas.
Q. As you may be aware, there has been debate about whether or not social media platforms should be able to ban pages promoting views some people describe as hate speech. Most recently, this has involved so-called Alt-Right speakers being banned from Facebook, Youtube, Apple and Spotify. Which of the following is closer to your view?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | |||
| Social media platforms should have to allow such people even if they don’t like what those people are saying, because those people have a right to free speech | 32% | 31% | 35% | 29% | 40% | ||
| An individual’s right to free speech doesn’t mean that social media sites must provide those individuals a platform to speak from. | 48% | 47% | 49% | 61% | 49% | ||
| Don’t know | 20% | 23% | 16% | 10% | 11% |
32% agreed more with the statement that “social media platforms should have to allow such people . . . have a right to free speech”. Those most likely to support this statement were men (37%), aged under 35 (43%) and other party voters (40%).
Nearly half (48%) agreed more with the statement that the “right to free speech doesn’t mean that social media sites must provide . . . a platform”. Those most likely to support this statement were aged 55+ (57%) and Greens voters (61%).