Q. The US government says the collection of phone and internet records is necessary in order to protect national security and fight terrorism.

Do you agree or disagree that governments are justified in collecting information on all people regardless of whether there is any suspicion of wrongdoing?

42% of people agree that governments are justified in collecting information on all people regardless of whether these is any suspicion of wrongdoing. 45% disagree.

Liberal/National voters (57%) were more likely to agree. Labor (56%) and Green (58%) voters were more likely to disagree.

Q. How much trust do you have in the following groups to protect your privacy?

Over half of people have no trust in Facebook (57%) or Twitter (55%) to protect their privacy. Just under half have no trust in the US government to protect their privacy (43%).

Very few people (13% or less) have a ‘lot of trust’ in the organisations listed to protect their privacy.

Just 41% of people have a lot/some trust in the Australian government to protect their privacy.

Those aged 18-24 (42%) and 25-34 (44%) were less likely to have no trust in Facebook. While those aged 35-44 (60%), 45-54 (66%), 55-64 (62%) and 65+ (63%) were more likely to have ‘no trust’.

The same theme was repeated for Twitter, with those aged 18-24 (31%) and 25-34 (45%) being less likely than those aged 35-44 (58%), 45-54 (63%), 55-64 (64%) and 65+ (63%) to have ‘no trust’.

Liberal/National voters were more likely to have a lot/some trust in the Australian government to protect their privacy (54%). Labor (33%) voters were less likely to have a lot/some trust in the Australian Government to protect their privacy.

Q. Do you agree or disagree that companies providing services to Australians should reveal what information they give to foreign governments?

73% agree that companies providing services to Australia should reveal what information they give to foreign governments. Just 16% disagree.

Those aged 45-54 (46%) and 55064 (53%) were more likely to strongly agree.

Labor voters (49%) were also more likely to strongly agree.

Q. Which of the following do you believe is the greatest threat to internet security?

The largest proportion of people believe that computer hackers (39%) are the greatest threat to internet security.

This was followed by organised crime (26%) and the US government (11%).

Just 7% believe the Chinese government is the biggest threat to internet security. 4% believe large companies are the biggest threat to internet security.

Females (45%) were more likely than males (32%) to think that computer hackers were the biggest threat to internet security.

Those aged 65+ were also more likely to select computer hackers (50%). Those aged 18-24 were more likely to select the US government (24%), and were less likely to select computer hackers (20%).

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?

Q. If don’t know -Well which party are you currently leaning to?

Sample size = 1,908 respondents

NB.  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 2010 election.

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?

52% agree that climate change is happening and is caused by human activity and 36% believe that we may just be witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate. This is a similar result to when this question was previously asked in May.

By age groups, those aged under 35 split 61%/25% and those aged 55+ split 42%/48%. 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%/27%.

Q. Do you support or oppose the previous Labor Government’s carbon pricing scheme which was introduced in July 2012 and requires industries to pay a tax based on the amount of carbon pollution they emit?

Support for carbon pricing has dropped since the last time the question was polled in May. Support is down four points to 39% and opposition up four points to 47%.

Looking at the results by voting intention, Labor voters (65%) and Greens voters (86%) were the most likely to support carbon pricing, whereas 76% of Coalition voters oppose it.

Younger respondents were more likely to support carbon pricing than older respondents – for those aged under 35, 47% support and 34% oppose while 64% of those aged 55+ oppose and 29% support.

Q. The new Liberal Government plans to dump the carbon tax and replace it with what they call a “direct action” plan which involves planting trees and paying companies to reduce their carbon pollution. Which approach to climate change would you favour?

31% favour the previous Government’s policy on addressing climate change and 35% favour the Liberal Government’s “direct action” plan. 16% do not support either approach. This is a significant shift in favour of the Liberal’s plan.

The previous Government’s approach had strongest support from Labor voters (57%), Greens voters (62%) and people with university degrees (37%).

The Liberal Government’s plan had strongest support from Liberal/National voters (57%) and people aged 55+ (44%).