Q. Do you agree or disagree that access to the Internet is becoming an essential service – like access to water and electricity?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | Men | Women | Aged 18-34 | Aged 35-54 | Aged 55+ | |||
| Total agree | 88% | 91% | 92% | 94% | 87% | 89% | 88% | 88% | 87% | 90% | ||
| Total disagree | 7% | 6% | 6% | 5% | 12% | 7% | 6% | 5% | 7% | 8% | ||
| Strongly agree | 47% | 55% | 45% | 55% | 42% | 46% | 48% | 52% | 48% | 39% | ||
| Agree | 41% | 36% | 47% | 39% | 45% | 43% | 40% | 36% | 39% | 51% | ||
| Disagree | 6% | 4% | 5% | 5% | 11% | 6% | 5% | 4% | 6% | 6% | ||
| Strongly disagree | 1% | 2% | 1% | – | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 2% | ||
| Don’t know | 5% | 3% | 3% | 1% | 2% | 4% | 5% | 6% | 6% | 2% |
88% agree that access to the internet is becoming an essential service. Only 7% disagreed.
There was very little difference across demographic and voter groups.
Q. Do you think that the National Broadband Network will adequately meet Australia’s future Internet requirements?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | Men | Women | Aged 18-34 | Aged 35-54 | Aged 55+ | |||
| Yes | 22% | 25% | 24% | 15% | 18% | 26% | 19% | 29% | 19% | 18% | ||
| No | 47% | 47% | 44% | 65% | 56% | 51% | 43% | 40% | 54% | 45% | ||
| Don’t know | 31% | 27% | 33% | 20% | 26% | 23% | 38% | 30% | 27% | 37% |
22% think that the National Broadband Network will adequately meet Australia’s future Internet requirements and 47% disagree.
Those most likely to think it will not meet future needs were Greens voters (65%) and aged 35-54 (54%).
Q. The Government’s national broadband network plan is to more quickly roll out fibre to local nodes and let Telstra’s copper network carry internet traffic to households, compared to Labor’s plan to roll out fibre to every household outside rural areas, which would cost more and have taken longer but produced higher speeds. Which plan do you believe is best for Australia?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | Men | Women | Aged 18-34 | Aged 35-54 | Aged 55+ | |||||
| The Liberal Government’s plan | 27% | 8% | 54% | 13% | 22% | 29% | 24% | 28% | 18% | 39% | 29% | |||
| The Labor plan | 42% | 73% | 17% | 66% | 42% | 47% | 36% | 39% | 48% | 34% | 38% | |||
| Don’t know | 32% | 19% | 29% | 22% | 36% | 23% | 40% | 33% | 34% | 27% | 33% |
42% think the Labor NBN plan is best for Australia and 27% think the Government’s plan is best. 32% did not give an opinion. This represents an increase in support for the Labor plan since this question was asked in September last year.
Those more likely to prefer the Labor plan were Labor voters (73%), Greens voters (66%), men (47%) and aged 35-54 (48%).
Q. Overall, do you think the level of immigration into Australia over the last ten years has been too high, too low or about right?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | Men | Women | Aged 18-34 | Aged 35-54 | Aged 55+ | |||
| Total too high | 50% | 43% | 58% | 20% | 68% | 52% | 48% | 40% | 50% | 64% | ||
| Total too low | 12% | 16% | 7% | 34% | 8% | 9% | 14% | 14% | 13% | 9% | ||
| Much too high | 28% | 25% | 29% | 8% | 48% | 30% | 26% | 19% | 29% | 39% | ||
| A little too high | 22% | 18% | 29% | 12% | 20% | 22% | 22% | 21% | 21% | 25% | ||
| About right | 28% | 30% | 31% | 39% | 19% | 31% | 25% | 31% | 28% | 25% | ||
| A little too low | 8% | 9% | 6% | 19% | 5% | 6% | 9% | 8% | 9% | 7% | ||
| Much too low | 4% | 7% | 1% | 15% | 3% | 3% | 5% | 6% | 4% | 2% | ||
| Don’t know | 10% | 11% | 5% | 7% | 5% | 7% | 13% | 14% | 10% | 3% |
50% think that the level of immigration into Australia over the last ten years has been too high, 28% think it has been about right and 12% think it has been too low.
Those most likely to think it has been too high were Liberal/National voters (58%), other party voters (68%) and people aged 55+ (64%).
Q. Do you support or oppose the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s decision to permanently increase Australia’s annual refugee intake from 13,750 to 18,750 including taking refugees from Central America?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | Men | Women | Aged 18-34 | Aged 35-54 | Aged 55+ | |||
| Total support | 39% | 44% | 38% | 74% | 26% | 40% | 37% | 46% | 37% | 33% | ||
| Total oppose | 44% | 39% | 45% | 20% | 65% | 46% | 42% | 32% | 45% | 56% | ||
| Strongly support | 11% | 13% | 8% | 32% | 7% | 9% | 12% | 15% | 11% | 5% | ||
| Support | 28% | 31% | 30% | 42% | 19% | 31% | 25% | 31% | 26% | 28% | ||
| Oppose | 21% | 19% | 29% | 13% | 16% | 21% | 22% | 15% | 22% | 29% | ||
| Strongly oppose | 23% | 20% | 16% | 7% | 49% | 25% | 20% | 17% | 23% | 27% | ||
| Don’t know | 17% | 16% | 16% | 5% | 9% | 14% | 20% | 22% | 18% | 10% |
39% support the recent decision to permanently increase Australia’s annual refugee intake from 13,750 to 18,750 and 44% oppose.
Those more likely to support the decision were Greens voters (74%), aged 18-34 (46%) and university educated (51%).
Those more likely to oppose the decision were other party voters (65%), aged 55+ (56%) and those who had not completed secondary schooling (56%).
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
20/9/16 |
2 weeks ago
13/9/16 |
4 weeks ago
30/8/16 |
Election 2 Jul 16 | |||
| Liberal | 36% | 34% | 35% | 37% | |||
| National | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | |||
| Total Liberal/National | 39% | 37% | 38% | 40% | 42.0% | ||
| Labor | 36% | 37% | 37% | 36% | 34.7% | ||
| Greens | 9% | 10% | 10% | 10% | 10.2% | ||
| Nick Xenophon Team | 3% | 4% | 4% | 4% | |||
| Pauline Hanson’s One Nation | 6% | 6% | 5% | ||||
| Other/Independent | 7% | 7% | 7% | 10% | 13.1% | ||
| 2 party preferred | |||||||
| Liberal National | 48% | 48% | 48% | 49% | 50.4% | ||
| Labor | 52% | 52% | 52% | 51% | 49.6% |
N.B. Sample = 1,800. 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 two-party preferred estimate is calculated by distributing the votes of the other parties according to their preferences at the 2016 election.
Q. Which of the following describe your opinion of the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull?
| Total | May 2016 | Difference | |||
| Intelligent | 75% | 76% | -1 | ||
| Out of touch with ordinary people | 65% | 63% | +2 | ||
| Hard-working | 61% | 60% | +1 | ||
| Arrogant | 56% | 51% | +5 | ||
| A capable leader | 51% | 55% | -4 | ||
| Superficial | 50% | 48% | +2 | ||
| Good in a crisis | 47% | 48% | -1 | ||
| Understands the problems facing Australia | 46% | 47% | -1 | ||
| Narrow-minded | 45% | 41% | +4 | ||
| Trustworthy | 39% | 37% | +2 | ||
| More honest than most politicians | 37% | 36% | +1 | ||
| Intolerant | 37% | 34% | +3 | ||
| Erratic | 36% | 34% | +2 | ||
| Visionary | 35% | 40% | -5 | ||
| Aggressive | 31% | 31% | – |
Malcolm Turnbull’s key attributes were intelligent (75%), out of touch with ordinary people (65%), hard working (61%) and arrogant (56%).
Since May, the main changes have been for arrogant (up 5%), visionary (down 5%), a capable leader (down 4%) and narrow-minded (up 4%).
Q. Which of the following describe your opinion of the Opposition Leader, Bill Shorten?
| Total | May 2016 | Change | |||
| Hard working | 61% | 60% | +1 | ||
| Intelligent | 59% | 60% | -1 | ||
| Understands the problems facing Australia | 49% | 50% | -1 | ||
| Out of touch with ordinary people | 46% | 42% | +4 | ||
| Superficial | 45% | 44% | +1 | ||
| A capable leader | 45% | 43% | +2 | ||
| Arrogant | 44% | 40% | +4 | ||
| Narrow-minded | 42% | 40% | +2 | ||
| Erratic | 39% | 37% | +2 | ||
| Good in a crisis | 39% | 37% | +2 | ||
| Aggressive | 36% | 30% | +6 | ||
| Intolerant | 33% | 30% | +3 | ||
| Trustworthy | 32% | 31% | +1 | ||
| Visionary | 32% | 28% | +4 | ||
| More honest than most politicians | 29% | 26% | +3 |
Bill Shorten’s key attributes were hard working (61%), intelligent (59%) and understands the problems facing Australia (49%).
Since May, the main changes have been for aggressive (up 6%), out of touch with ordinary people (up 4%), arrogant (up 4%) and visionary (up 4%).