Q. Do you think Australia should increase or decrease our military involvement in Syria and Iraq against the Islamic State?
|
Total |
Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
Vote other |
||
|
Increase |
32% |
34% |
38% |
20% |
31% |
|
|
Decrease |
19% |
19% |
13% |
40% |
25% |
|
|
Make no change |
28% |
26% |
34% |
24% |
29% |
|
|
Don’t know |
21% |
21% |
15% |
16% |
16% |
32% think Australia should increase our military involvement in Syria and Iraq, 19% think we should decrease involvement and 28% think we should make no change.
Those most likely to want increased military involvement were Liberal/National voters (38%), men (37%) and aged 55+ (39%).
Q. Do you think that Australia increasing military involvement against Islamic State will make Australia more or less safe from the threat of terrorism?
|
Total |
Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
Vote Other |
||
|
Total more safe |
17% |
17% |
21% |
8% |
18% |
|
|
Total less safe |
45% |
51% |
38% |
63% |
45% |
|
|
A lot more safe |
6% |
6% |
7% |
4% |
6% |
|
|
A little more safe |
11% |
11% |
14% |
4% |
12% |
|
|
Make no difference |
27% |
24% |
32% |
20% |
28% |
|
|
A little less safe |
24% |
28% |
22% |
23% |
22% |
|
|
A lot less safe |
21% |
23% |
16% |
40% |
23% |
|
|
Don’t know |
11% |
7% |
9% |
9% |
10% |
45% think that increasing military involvement against Islamic State will make Australia less safe from the threat of terrorism and 17% think it will make Australia less safe. 27% think it makes no difference.
48% of women think it will make Australia less safe compared to 42% of men.
Q. Do you think that Islamist terrorist attacks are more likely to be a reaction to the foreign policies of western countries and their role in the Middle East, or are they more likely to be motivated by an ideological hatred of western culture and freedoms?
|
Total |
Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
Vote Other |
||
|
Reaction to role of western countries in the Middle East |
11% |
14% |
9% |
21% |
6% |
|
|
Hatred of western culture and freedoms |
29% |
26% |
36% |
15% |
40% |
|
|
Both |
46% |
48% |
45% |
56% |
42% |
|
|
Neither |
3% |
3% |
2% |
4% |
4% |
|
|
Don’t know |
11% |
9% |
8% |
4% |
8% |
48% think that Islamist terrorist attacks are both a reaction to the role of western countries in the Middle East and motivated by a hatred of western culture and freedoms. 29% think they are more likely to be motivated by hatred of the west and 11% think they are more likely to be a reaction to the role of western countries in the Middle East.
Those most likely to think they are more motivated by a hatred of the west were Liberal/National voters (36%) and aged 65+ (38%).
Q. Overall, do you think that technological change is making people’s lives better or worse?
| Total | Men | Women | Aged 18-34 | Aged 35-54 | Aged 55+ | ||
| Total better | 56% | 59% | 53% | 60% | 53% | 57% | |
| Total worse | 22% | 19% | 24% | 16% | 23% | 23% | |
| A lot better | 22% | 24% | 20% | 24% | 22% | 20% | |
| A little better | 34% | 35% | 33% | 36% | 31% | 37% | |
| Neither better nor worse | 18% | 19% | 17% | 18% | 18% | 19% | |
| A little worse | 16% | 13% | 18% | 12% | 17% | 17% | |
| A lot worse | 6% | 6% | 6% | 4% | 6% | 6% | |
| Don’t know | 4% | 3% | 6% | 6% | 5% | 1% |
56% think that technological change is making people’s lives better and 22% think it is making people’s lives worse. 18% think it makes no difference.
Those most likely to think technology is making people’s lives better were aged 18-24 (65%), Greens voters (65%) and university educated (67%).
Q. Do you think the following technological changes are likely to happen or unlikely to happen in the next 50 years?
| Likely to happen | |||||||||
| Likely to happen | Unlikely to happen | Don’t know | Men | Women | Aged 18-34 | Aged 35-54 | Aged 55+ | ||
| People needing an organ transplant will have new organs made for them in a laboratory | 73% | 13% | 15% | 72% | 73% | 66% | 70% | 84% | |
| Parents will be able to alter the DNA of their offspring before birth to produce smarter, healthier children | 53% | 29% | 18% | 48% | 57% | 48% | 58% | 50% | |
| Computers will be as effective as people in creating music, novels, movies and paintings | 48% | 36% | 16% | 48% | 48% | 41% | 51% | 53% | |
| People will be able to live to 150 years old | 25% | 58% | 17% | 25% | 25% | 26% | 26% | 23% | |
| Humans will live in colonies on other planets | 22% | 59% | 18% | 24% | 20% | 22% | 26% | 18% | |
| Humans will be able to control the weather | 11% | 77% | 12% | 12% | 11% | 11% | 14% | 8% | |
More than half think it is likely that, in the next 50 years, people needing an organ transplant will have new organs made for them in a laboratory (73%) and parents will be able to alter the DNA of their offspring before birth to produce smarter, healthier children (53%). About half (48%) think that computers will be as effective as people in creating music, novels, movies and paintings.
More than half think it is unlikely that humans will be able to control the weather (77%), humans will live in colonies on other planets (59%) or that people will be able to live to 150 years old (58%).
Q. And if these things did happen, would they be good for society or bad for society?
| Good for society | ||||||||||
| Good for society | Neither good nor bad | Bad for society | Don’t know | Men | Women | Aged 18-34 | Aged 35-54 | Aged 55+ | ||
| People needing an organ transplant will have new organs made for them in a laboratory | 67% | 17% | 7% | 9% | 65% | 68% | 69% | 63% | 70% | |
| Humans will live in colonies on other planets | 24% | 38% | 19% | 18% | 29% | 19% | 26% | 28% | 18% | |
| Humans will be able to control the weather | 20% | 26% | 38% | 16% | 24% | 16% | 17% | 23% | 20% | |
| Parents will be able to alter the DNA of their offspring before birth to produce smarter, healthier children | 17% | 21% | 49% | 12% | 20% | 15% | 18% | 19% | 15% | |
| Computers will be as effective as people in creating music, novels, movies and paintings | 15% | 33% | 40% | 11% | 17% | 14% | 17% | 16% | 13% | |
| People will be able to live to 150 years old | 13% | 32% | 41% | 14% | 15% | 11% | 15% | 15% | 9%
|
|
67% think that people needing an organ transplant having new organs made for them in a laboratory will be good for society. Humans living on other planets is more likely to be seen as neither good nor bad for society (38%).
The other issues canvassed were more likely to be considered bad for society, especially being able to alter the DNA of children before birth (
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 |
|
|
Jun 2011 |
Oct 2012 |
Oct 2013 |
Dec 2014 |
Mar 2015 |
Jul 2015 |
|||
|
Climate change is happening and is caused by human activity |
56% |
72% |
42% |
88% |
49% |
|
|
50% |
48% |
52% |
57% |
54% |
56% |
||
|
We are just witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate |
32% |
20% |
48% |
8% |
40% |
|
|
39% |
39% |
36% |
29% |
31% |
31% |
||
|
Don’t know |
12% |
8% |
11% |
4% |
11% |
|
|
12% |
13% |
12% |
14% |
15% |
12% |
56% (no change since July) agree that climate change is happening and is caused by human activity and 32% (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 64%/23% and those aged 55+ split 47%/46%. People with higher education were more likely to think climate change is happening and is caused by human activity – those with university degrees split 64%/26%.
Q. When it comes to taking action to address climate change, do you think Australia is doing more or less than the following countries?
|
Climate change caused by human activity |
|||||||||
|
Australia doing more |
Australia doing less |
Doing about the same |
Don’t know |
Australia doing more |
Australia doing less |
Doing about the same |
Don’t know |
||
|
USA |
20% |
29% |
30% |
20% |
22% |
37% |
26% |
15% |
|
|
China |
41% |
21% |
18% |
20% |
41% |
27% |
16% |
15% |
|
|
European countries |
14% |
39% |
25% |
22% |
14% |
50% |
20% |
16% |
|
Respondents were more likely to think Australia was doing more (41%) than China to address climate change but more likely to think both USA (29%) and European countries (39%) are doing more than Australia.
Those who believed climate change is happening and caused by human activity were more likely to think Australia was doing less.