10 September 2012, 100912, australian unions, Australian workers, good or bad, unions
Q. Overall, do you think unions have been good or bad for Australian working people?
|
19 Mar 2012 |
This week 10 Sept 12 |
Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
Work full time |
Work part time |
|
| Total good |
48% |
45% |
67% |
30% |
74% |
47% |
51% |
| Total bad |
17% |
20% |
4% |
36% |
6% |
22% |
18% |
| Very good |
12% |
11% |
20% |
4% |
28% |
11% |
12% |
| Good |
36% |
34% |
47% |
26% |
46% |
36% |
39% |
| Neither good nor bad |
28% |
27% |
24% |
30% |
13% |
25% |
21% |
| Bad |
11% |
12% |
3% |
20% |
5% |
12% |
11% |
| Very bad |
6% |
8% |
1% |
16% |
1% |
10% |
7% |
| Don’t know |
6% |
8% |
6% |
4% |
7% |
5% |
9% |
The largest portion of respondents polled believe that overall, unions have been good for Australian working people (45% total good), whilst a fifth of respondents (20%) felt that they had been bad for working people. Results have moved slightly since the last time the question was polled in March 2012, with those respondents regarding unions as good dropping from 48% to 45% and those regarding them as bad rising the equivalent amount from 17% to 20% in the same period.
Looking at the results by voting intention, Greens voters were by the most likely to believe that unions had been good for working people (74%), whilst Coalition voters were by far the most likely to believe that unions had been bad for Australian working people (36%).
The majority of part time workers believed that unions had been good for Australian working people (51%) compared with 47% of full time workers.
10 September 2012, 100912, importance of unions
Q. And how important are unions for Australian working people today?
|
19 Mar 2012 |
This week 10 Sept 12 |
Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
Work full time |
Work part time |
|
| Total Important |
56% |
52% |
72% |
34% |
82% |
52% |
56% |
| Total Not Important |
35% |
38% |
21% |
58% |
11% |
42% |
33% |
| Very important |
19% |
16% |
28% |
6% |
37% |
19% |
15% |
| Quite important |
37% |
36% |
44% |
28% |
45% |
33% |
41% |
| Not very important |
27% |
28% |
19% |
40% |
9% |
31% |
25% |
| Not at all important |
8% |
10% |
2% |
18% |
2% |
11% |
8% |
| Don’t know |
9% |
10% |
6% |
8% |
7% |
6% |
10% |
The majority of respondents regarded unions to be important for Australian working people today (52%), whilst 38% believe that they were not important. Belief that they are important fell 4 points from 56% in March 2012 to 52% in this week’s results.
Greens voters were by far the most likely to believe that unions were important for Australian working people today (82%), whilst Coalition voters were the most likely to regard unions as not important (58%).
Both the majority of full time workers (52%) and part time workers (56%) regarded unions as important for Australian working people today. However full time workers (42%) were more likely than part time workers (33%) to regard unions as not important.
10 September 2012, 100912, australian unions, better off, unions, worse off
Q. Overall, would workers be better off or worse off if unions in Australia were stronger?
|
Total |
Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
Work full time |
Work part time |
|
| Total better off |
39% |
58% |
24% |
71% |
40% |
40% |
| Total worse off |
30% |
17% |
47% |
9% |
35% |
24% |
| A lot better off |
13% |
24% |
7% |
20% |
15% |
13% |
| A little better off |
26% |
34% |
17% |
51% |
25% |
27% |
| A little worse off |
15% |
13% |
20% |
5% |
16% |
12% |
| A lot worse off |
15% |
4% |
27% |
4% |
19% |
12% |
| Make no difference |
15% |
12% |
18% |
7% |
16% |
15% |
| Don’t know |
15% |
14% |
12% |
13% |
9% |
21% |
The largest portion of respondents felt that workers would be better off if unions in Australia were stronger (39%), followed by 30% of respondents that believed workers would be worse off (30%). Fifteen percent (15%) felt that it would make no difference.
Looking at the results by voting intention, Greens voters were the most likely to believe that workers would be better off (71%), whilst Coalition voters were by far the most likely to believe that workers would be worse off (47%).
Whilst the same portion of full time workers and part time workers felt that workers would be better off (both 40%), full time workers were more likely to believe that workers would be worse off if unions were stronger (35%) compared to part time workers (24%).
10 September 2012, 100912, age pension, ALP, Carbon Tax, decisions, GFC, Gonski, low incomes, marine reserves, NBN, ndis, tax free threshold
Q. Thinking about the decisions the Labor Government has made over the last few years, do you think the following decisions were good or bad for Australia?
|
|
Total good |
Total bad |
Very good |
Good |
Neither good nor bad |
Bad |
Very bad |
Don’t know |
| Expanding dental health services for people on low incomes |
77% |
5% |
33% |
44% |
14% |
2% |
3% |
5% |
| Increasing the tax free threshold from $6,000 to $18,200 |
75% |
4% |
36% |
39% |
16% |
3% |
1% |
5% |
| Increasing the age pension |
70% |
11% |
30% |
40% |
13% |
7% |
4% |
6% |
| Increasing superannuation from 9% to 12% |
68% |
9% |
27% |
41% |
16% |
6% |
3% |
6% |
| Protecting large areas of Australia’s marine environment in a network of marine reserves |
67% |
8% |
28% |
39% |
20% |
5% |
3% |
7% |
| Introducing the National Disability Insurance Scheme |
58% |
5% |
21% |
37% |
23% |
3% |
2% |
14% |
| Implementing the recommendations of the Gonski report to increase education funding |
54% |
8% |
20% |
34% |
25% |
5% |
3% |
13% |
| Stimulus spending to tackle the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) |
54% |
22% |
22% |
32% |
18% |
14% |
8% |
8% |
| Spending on new school buildings during the GFC |
53% |
22% |
15% |
38% |
18% |
12% |
10% |
6% |
| Paid parental leave |
52% |
20% |
17% |
35% |
23% |
12% |
8% |
5% |
| Introducing a tax on large profits of mining companies |
49% |
25% |
24% |
25% |
17% |
13% |
12% |
8% |
| Implementing the recommendations of the expert committee on asylum seekers including offshore processing |
45% |
15% |
15% |
30% |
28% |
8% |
7% |
12% |
| Building the NBN (National Broadband Network) |
43% |
28% |
17% |
26% |
22% |
14% |
14% |
7% |
| Abolished WorkChoices |
42% |
27% |
23% |
19% |
19% |
17% |
10% |
12% |
| Introducing a carbon tax to tackle climate change |
28% |
51% |
14% |
14% |
15% |
16% |
35% |
7% |
The two most popular decisions of the Labor Government are ‘expanding dental health services for people on low incomes’ (77% total good) and ‘increasing the tax free threshold from $6,000 to $18,000 (75% total good). The least popular decisions were ‘Building the NBN’ (43% total good), ‘Abolished WorkChoices’ (42% total good) and ‘introducing a carbon tax to tackle climate change’ (28% total good).
Of the fifteen decisions put to respondents, the majority of respondents believed that 10 of the 15 decisions were good for Australia. For the remaining 5 decisions, a larger portion of respondents generally regarded the decision to be good for Australia except for ‘introducing a carbon tax to tackle climate change’, where the majority of respondents (51%) believed it to be bad for Australia.
Female respondents were more likely to endorse the dental health reforms (80% total good) compared with male respondents (74% total good).
Increasing the age pension was most strongly supported by respondents aged 65+ (77% total good).
Introducing paid parental leave was more popular with female respondents (57% total good), compared with male respondents (46% total good). Looking at this decision by age, it was most popular amongst respondents aged 25-34 (62%) and 35-44 (62%) whereas respondents aged 65+ were the most likely to regard the decision as a bad one (36% total bad).
Implementing the recommendations of the expert committee on asylum seekers including offshore processing proved to be a very popular decision amongst respondents aged 65+ (65% total good), whereas respondents aged 25-34 were the most likely to regard it as a bad decision (43% total bad).
Female respondents were more likely to regard ‘protecting large areas of Australia’s marine environment’ as a good decision (72% total good) compared with male respondents (60% total good).
03 September 2012, 030912, 2 party preferred, 2PP, ALP, first preference vote, Greens, Labor, Liberal, Voting intention
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 = 1,871 respondents
| First preference/leaning to |
Election 21 Aug 10 |
4 weeks ago 6/8/12 |
2 weeks ago 20/8/12 |
Last week 27/8/12 |
This week 3/9/12 |
| Liberal |
|
46% |
46% |
46% |
44% |
| National |
|
3% |
3% |
3% |
3% |
| Total Lib/Nat |
43.6% |
49% |
49% |
49% |
48% |
| Labor |
38.0% |
33% |
32% |
32% |
34% |
| Greens |
11.8% |
10% |
10% |
10% |
9% |
| Other/Independent |
6.6% |
8% |
9% |
9% |
9% |
| 2PP |
Election 21 Aug 10 |
4 weeks ago |
2 weeks ago |
Last week |
This week |
| Total Lib/Nat |
49.9% |
56% |
57% |
56% |
55% |
| Labor |
50.1% |
44% |
43% |
44% |
45% |
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. These estimates have a confidence interval of approx. plus or minus 2-3%.
03 September 2012, 030912, female politicians, personal criticism
Q. In general, do you think female politicians are subjected to more or less personal criticism than male politicians?
|
Total |
Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
Men |
Women |
|
| More |
52% |
71% |
38% |
80% |
40% |
63% |
| Less |
4% |
2% |
7% |
1% |
6% |
2% |
| About the same |
40% |
25% |
53% |
16% |
49% |
31% |
| Don’t know |
5% |
1% |
3% |
3% |
5% |
4% |
52% think that female politicians are subjected to more personal criticism than male politicians. 40% think they receive about the same level of personal criticism and 4% think they receive less.
63% of women think female politicians receive more personal criticism but 55% of men think they receive about the same or less.