Q. Do you think donations to the following groups should be tax deductible or not tax deductible?
| Should be tax deductible | Should not be tax deductible | Don’t know | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | ||
| Medical research organisations | 76% | 12% | 12% | 78% | 80% | 72% | 82% | |
| Social welfare organisations | 66% | 19% | 15% | 72% | 67% | 73% | 63% | |
| Animal welfare organisations | 66% | 21% | 13% | 68% | 66% | 71% | 70% | |
| Public libraries, museums and art galleries | 60% | 26% | 14% | 62% | 60% | 64% | 63% | |
| Human rights groups | 55% | 29% | 17% | 63% | 51% | 70% | 47% | |
| Environment groups | 53% | 31% | 16% | 61% | 48% | 69% | 50% | |
| Overseas aid organisations | 52% | 32% | 16% | 56% | 56% | 58% | 44% | |
| Churches and religious groups | 36% | 51% | 13% | 37% | 41% | 20% | 33% | |
| Groups that campaign on social issues | 34% | 44% | 22% | 45% | 23% | 47% | 28% |
A majority favour tax deductibility of donations to all listed groups except for churches and religious groups (36%) and groups that campaign on social issues (34%).
Those most favoured for tax deductibility of donations were medical research organisations (76%), social welfare organisations (66%) and animal welfare organisations (66%).
Labor and Greens voters were more likely to approve of tax deductibility for social welfare groups, human rights groups, environment groups and groups that campaign on social issues.
Q. Should political parties be allowed to receive donations from each of the following?
| Should be allowed | Should not be allowed | Don’t know | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | ||
| Individual Australian voters | 47% | 39% | 15% | 44% | 54% | 49% | 51% | |
| Australian companies | 30% | 55% | 15% | 26% | 42% | 24% | 27% | |
| Professional associations | 27% | 57% | 16% | 24% | 34% | 25% | 25% | |
| Unions | 21% | 64% | 15% | 24% | 20% | 27% | 19% | |
| Energy companies | 20% | 66% | 14% | 17% | 30% | 15% | 14% | |
| Mining companies | 18% | 67% | 15% | 16% | 27% | 9% | 15% | |
| Property developers | 16% | 70% | 14% | 15% | 23% | 10% | 13% | |
| Casinos | 15% | 73% | 12% | 12% | 22% | 10% | 12% | |
| Foreign companies | 13% | 74% | 13% | 12% | 17% | 13% | 11% |
A majority are opposed to all donations to political parties with the exception of donations from individual Australian voters (47% allow/39% not allow).
At least 7 in 10 were opposed to donations from foreign companies (74% not allow), casinos (73%) and property developers (70%).
Liberal/National voters were more likely to support all forms of donations except those from unions.
Q. Do you think activist groups – such as GetUp, which campaigns on social issues – should be allowed or not allowed to accept donations from foreign organisations or individuals?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | ||
| Should be allowed to accept foreign donations | 31% | 39% | 28% | 41% | 26% | |
| Should not be allowed to accept foreign donations | 41% | 42% | 44% | 29% | 47% | |
| Don’t know | 28% | 20% | 28% | 30% | 27% |
31% think that activist groups should be allowed to accept donations from foreign organisations or individuals and 41% think they should not be allowed.
Those most likely to think they should be allowed were Labor voters (39%, Greens voters (41%) and aged under 35 (44%).
Those most likely tot think they should not be allowed were aged 65+ (68%) and “other” voters (47%).
Q. Which political party do you think best represents the interests of –
| Labor | Liberal | Greens | Don’t know | Net (Liberal – Labor) | Net Sep 2015 | ||
| Big business | 10% | 63% | 2% | 24% | +53 | +52 | |
| Working people on high incomes | 12% | 62% | 2% | 24% | +50 | +48 | |
| Small businesses and self-employed | 28% | 40% | 4% | 28% | +12 | +15 | |
| Rural and regional Australians | 25% | 30% | 13% | 33% | +5 | +8 | |
| The next generation of Australians | 24% | 26% | 14% | 36% | +2 | +5 | |
| Indigenous people | 26% | 17% | 16% | 42% | -9 | -1 | |
| Ethnic communities | 27% | 17% | 17% | 39% | -10 | -2 | |
| Families with young children | 39% | 25% | 6% | 30% | -14 | -13 | |
| Students | 33% | 19% | 12% | 36% | -14 | -16 | |
| Working people on average incomes | 42% | 27% | 5% | 26% | -15 | -16 | |
| Pensioners | 40% | 20% | 6% | 34% | -20 | -15 | |
| People on welfare | 42% | 17% | 9% | 31% | -25 | -23 | |
| Working people on low incomes | 49% | 16% | 7% | 28% | -33 | –23 |
The Labor Party is considered the party which best represents the interests of families with young children, students, working people on low and average incomes, people on welfare and pensioners. The Liberal Party is considered substantially better at representing the interests of people on high incomes, big business and small business and self-employed.
Since this question was asked in September 2015, the Labor Party has improved its position against the Liberal Party on representing the interests of indigenous people (up 8%), ethnic communities (up 8%), pensioners (up 5%) and working people on low incomes (up 10%).
Q. Do you believe it is ever justified to break the law?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | ||
| Sometimes justified to break the law | 37% | 38% | 34% | 44% | 45% | |
| Never justified to break the law | 50% | 51% | 56% | 47% | 44% | |
| Don’t know | 13% | 11% | 10% | 10% | 11% |
37% believe it is sometimes justified to break the law and 50% think it is never justified to break the law.
Those more likely to think it is sometimes justified to break the law were Greens voters (44%), other party voters (45%) and aged under 35 (42%),
Those more likely to think it is never justified to break the law were Liberal/National voters (56%) and aged 55+ (62%).
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 | Last week 21/3/17 | 2 weeks ago 14/3/17 | 4 weeks ago 28/2/17 | Election 2 Jul 16 | |||
| Liberal | 32% | 31% | 32% | 34% | |||
| National | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | |||
| Total Liberal/National | 35% | 34% | 35% | 37% | 42.0% | ||
| Labor | 37% | 37% | 36% | 37% | 34.7% | ||
| Greens | 10% | 9% | 9% | 9% | 10.2% | ||
| Nick Xenophon Team | 4% | 3% | 3% | 3% | |||
| Pauline Hanson’s One Nation | 8% | 10% | 11% | 9% | |||
| Other/Independent | 7% | 6% | 6% | 6% | 13.1% | ||
| 2 party preferred | |||||||
| Liberal National | 46% | 45% | 47% | 47% | 50.4% | ||
| Labor | 54% | 55% | 53% | 53% | 49.6% |
NB. Sample = 1,808. The data in the above tables comprise 2-week averages derived from the first preference/leaning to voting questions. Respondents who select ‘don’t know’ are not included in the results. The
Q. Overall, do you think that laws governing racial discrimination in Australia are too strict, too weak or about right?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | Nov 2016 | |||
| Too strict | 16% | 11% | 21% | 10% | 29% | 17% | ||
| Too weak | 26% | 30% | 22% | 37% | 27% | 26% | ||
| About right | 40% | 46% | 47% | 34% | 28% | 40% | ||
| Don’t know | 18% | 13% | 11% | 19% | 15% | 17% |
40% think Australia current laws governing racial discrimination are about right, 26% think they are too weak and 16% think they are too strict. These results are almost unchanged since this question was asked in November.
Those most likely to think they are too weak were Greens voters (37%) and people aged 18-34 (30%).
Those most likely to think they are too strict were other voters (29%) and aged 55+ (25%).
Q. The Racial Discrimination Act makes it an offence to “intimidate, humiliate, offend or insult” someone because of their race or ethnicity. It has been proposed to replace the words “humiliate, offend or insult” with “harass”. This means it will be unlawful to “harass or intimidate” someone because of their race or ethnicity but not unlawful to “humiliate, offend or insult”. Do you approve or disapprove of this change?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | ||
| Total approve | 45% | 45% | 58% | 32% | 45% | |
| Total disapprove | 34% | 41% | 27% | 50% | 33% | |
| Strongly approve | 14% | 14% | 17% | 9% | 18% | |
| Approve | 31% | 31% | 41% | 23% | 27% | |
| Disapprove | 19% | 17% | 20% | 28% | 19% | |
| Strongly disapprove | 15% | 24% | 7% | 22% | 14% | |
| Don’t know | 20% | 15% | 15% | 18% | 22% |
45% approved of changing the Racial Discrimination Act and 34% opposed.
58% of Liberal/National voters approve, 50% of Greens votes disapprove and Labor voters were split 45% approve/41% disapprove.
53% of respondents aged 65+ approved and 39% of those with university education disapproved.