Q. When a person has a disease that cannot be cured and is living in severe pain, do you think doctors should or should not be allowed by law to assist the patient to commit suicide if the patient requests it?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | Sep 2010 | Nov 2013 | Oct 2014 | May 2015 | Sep 2016 | |||
| Should be allowed | 69% | 75% | 66% | 86% | 68% | 69% | 68% | 66% | 72% | 68% | ||
| Should not be allowed | 14% | 12% | 18% | 5% | 16% | 14% | 19% | 14% | 12% | 13% | ||
| Don’t know | 18% | 13% | 16% | 9% | 16% | 17% | 13% | 20% | 16% | 19% |
69% of respondents think that that doctors should be allowed by law to assist a patient commit suicide – similar to results over the last 6 years. 14% think it should not be allowed.
86% of Green voters, 75% of Labor and 66% of Liberal/National voters agreed that doctors should be allowed by law to assist a patient to commit suicide.
70% of women, 68% of men and 74% of those aged 45-64 support voluntary euthanasia.
Q. The Federal Government is proposing to end Gonski needs-based funding after 2017 and introduce a new funding system which would leave schools $3.8 billion worse off in 2018 and 2019 alone. Do you approve or disapprove of this decision?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | ||
| Total approve | 18% | 11% | 33% | 11% | 15% | |
| Total disapprove | 54% | 73% | 35% | 70% | 60% | |
| Strongly approve | 7% | 6% | 11% | 3% | 6% | |
| Approve | 11% | 5% | 22% | 8% | 9% | |
| Disapprove | 23% | 25% | 23% | 28% | 23% | |
| Strongly disapprove | 31% | 48% | 12% | 42% | 37% | |
| Don’t know | 28% | 16% | 33% | 20% | 26% |
54% disapprove of replacing the Gonski need-based funding after 2017 and 18% approve. Liberal/National voters were split (33% approve/35% disapprove) while 73% of Labor voters and 70% of Greens voters disapprove.
59% of women and 50% of men disapprove. 59% of those aged 45-64 disapprove.
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 | |||
| Climate change is happening and is caused by human activity | 54% | 70% | 39% | 82% | 47% | 53% | 45% | 50% | 48% | 52% | 57% | 56% | 57% | ||
| We are just witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate | 27% | 18% | 40% | 7% | 40% | 34% | 36% | 39% | 39% | 36% | 29% | 32% | 26% | ||
| Don’t know | 18% | 12% | 20% | 12% | 13% | 13% | 19% | 12% | 13% | 12% | 14% | 12% | 17% |
54% (down 3% since August) agree that climate change is happening and is caused by human activity and 27% (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 60%/19% and those aged 55+ split 47%/42%. People with higher education were more likely to think climate change is happening and is caused by human activity – those with university degrees split 61%/22%.
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 | Climate change is happening | Aug 2015 | Mar 2016 | Aug 2016 | ||||
| Doing enough | 22% | 16% | 35% | 4% | 26% | 15% | 24% | 21% | 22% | |||
| Not doing enough | 49% | 62% | 30% | 88% | 45% | 76% | 53% | 57% | 52% | |||
| Doing too much | 11% | 8% | 16% | 2% | 17% | 2% | 7% | 8% | 8% | |||
| Don’t know | 18% | 14% | 19% | 6% | 12% | 7% | 16% | 13% | 18% |
49% (down 3% since August) think Australia is not doing enough to address climate change and 22% (no change) think Australia is doing enough.
Those most likely to think Australia is not doing enough were aged 18-34 (54%) and university educated (54%).
Of those who believe climate change is happening, 76% think Australia is not doing enough.
Q. Where do you believe you go after you die?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | ||
| Nowhere | 32% | 32% | 32% | 40% | 31% | |
| To an afterlife | 27% | 30% | 30% | 11% | 30% | |
| You are reincarnated | 9% | 10% | 8% | 11% | 11% | |
| Somewhere else | 7% | 6% | 8% | 11% | 10% | |
| Don’t know | 25% | 22% | 23% | 28% | 19% |
27% think people go to an afterlife when they die, 9% think they are reincarnated and 7% think they go somewhere else. 32% think they go nowhere and 25% don’t know.
There were no major differences by voting intention except for Greens voters who were less likely to believe in an afterlife (11%) and more likely to think people go nowhere (40%).
38% of men think people go nowhere compared to 26% of women.
34% of those aged 35-54 believe in an afterlife and 40% of those aged 55+ think people go nowhere.
Q. Do you think the following types of abuse and violence have increased or decreased in Australia over the last few years?
| Increased | Decreased | No change | Don’t know | |
| Racial abuse or violence | 52% | 12% | 27% | 9% |
| Homophobic abuse or violence | 33% | 29% | 25% | 13% |
| Abuse or violence of people because of their religion | 59% | 9% | 21% | 10% |
59% think that religious abuse/violence in Australia has increased and 52% think racial abuse/violence has increased. Opinion was more divided over homophobic abuse/violence – 33% think it has increased and 29% decreased.
The main differences were between Labor and Liberal/National voters.
64% of Labor voters and 45% of LNP voters think racial abuse/violence has increased.
41% of Labor voters and 28% of LNP voters think homophobic abuse/violence has increased.
68% of Labor voters and 50% of LNP voters think religious abuse/violence has increased.
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
22/11/16 |
2 weeks ago
15/11/16 |
4 weeks ago
1/11/16 |
Election 2 Jul 16 | |||
| Liberal | 36% | 36% | 34% | 36% | |||
| National | 3% | 3% | 3% | 2% | |||
| Total Liberal/National | 39% | 38% | 37% | 38% | 42.0% | ||
| Labor | 36% | 37% | 37% | 37% | 34.7% | ||
| Greens | 9% | 10% | 11% | 10% | 10.2% | ||
| Nick Xenophon Team | 3% | 3% | 3% | 2% | |||
| Pauline Hanson’s One Nation | 7% | 6% | 6% | 6% | |||
| Other/Independent | 6% | 6% | 6% | 7% | 13.1% | ||
| 2 party preferred | |||||||
| Liberal National | 49% | 48% | 47% | 48% | 50.4% | ||
| Labor | 51% | 52% | 53% | 52% | 49.6% |
Q. Do you believe social classes still exist in Australia?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | Income under $1,000pw | Income $1,000 – $1,500pw | Income $1,500 – $2,000pw | Income $2,000+ | Aug 2014 | May 2016 | ||||
| Yes | 79% | 86% | 75% | 87% | 81% | 75% | 81% | 79% | 84% | 79% | 81% | |||
| No | 10% | 5% | 16% | 7% | 7% | 10% | 10% | 8% | 10% | 7% | 8% | |||
| Don’t know | 12% | 9% | 9% | 6% | 12% | 15% | 9% | 13% | 6% | 14% | 11% |
79% agreed that social class still exists in Australia – only 10% disagreed. These results are very similar to those of 2014 and earlier this year.
87% of Greens voters think that social class still exists compared to 75% of Liberal/National voters.
82% of those aged 45+ think that social class still exists compared to 75% of those aged under 45.
Those earning $2,000+ pw (84%) were a little more likely to think social class exists than those earning less than $1,000 pw (75%).