Q. Do you strongly approve, approve, disapprove or strongly disapprove of the job Kevin Rudd is doing as Prime Minister?

56% of people surveyed approve of the job Kevin Rudd is doing as Prime Minister and 35% disapprove.  Kevin Rudd’s approval rating has decreased five percentage points since we last asked this question in November and his disapproval rating has increased three percentage points.  Rudd’s approval rating is the lowest and the disapproval rating is the highest recorded over the last year.

Approval followed party lines – Labor voters were more likely to approve of the job Kevin Rudd is doing as Prime Minister (91%) while Coalition voters were more likely to disapprove (74%).   21% of Coalition voters approve of the job Kevin Rudd is doing as Prime Minister.

The net rating (approve minus disapprove) is +21%.

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Q. Do you strongly approve, approve, disapprove or strongly disapprove of the job Malcolm Turnbull is doing as Opposition Leader?

25% of people surveyed approve of the job Malcolm Turnbull is doing as Opposition Leader and 55% disapprove.   Turnbull’s approval rating has decreased four percentage points since we last asked this question and his disapproval rating has seen five percent increase.

Approval followed party lines – Coalition voters were more likely to approve (41%), while Labor voters were more likely to disapprove (62%).   However, just under half (46%) of Coalition voters disapprove of the job Turnbull is doing as Opposition Leader.

Malcolm Turnbull’s net rating is -30%, compared to -21% earlier this month.

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Q. Which of the following do you think would make the best leader of the Liberal Party?

* Not asked. Brendan Nelson (3%) and Greg Hunt (1%) were included in the July poll.

22% of people think Joe Hockey would make the best leader of the Liberal Party, 14% prefer Malcolm Turnbull and 9% prefer Tony Abbott. Just under half (47%) do not think that any of those listed would be the best leader of the Liberal Party – 19% prefer someone else as leader and 28% don’t know.

28% of Coalition voters think that Joe Hockey would make the best leader of the Liberal party, 20% of these same voters prefer Malcolm Turnbull and 13% prefer Tony Abbott.  Labor voters were more likely to think that Joe Hockey would make the best leader (27%).

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Q. How important are the following issues for Australia?

Reaching a global agreement on climate change was considered very/somewhat important for Australia by 74% of people surveyed.   63% think that having a Bill of Rights is very/somewhat important and 59% think Australia gaining a seat on the UN Security Council is very/somewhat important.

Green (94%) and Labor (87%) voters were more likely to think that reaching a global agreement on climate change is very/somewhat important for Australia.  Just over half (55%) of Coalition voters think that this is very/somewhat important for Australia.

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Q. If there was a Federal election held today, to which party would you probably give your first preference?

Q. If you ‘don’t know’ on the above question, which party are you currently leaning to?

*1915 sample size

Labor leads the Coalition by 10 percentage points in a two party preferred vote.

The major shift towards the Coalition in terms of primary vote is amongst people aged 65 years and over, and to a lesser extent those in the 55 – 64 year age group.  There was no shift towards the Coalition amongst any other age groups.

NB.  The data in the above table is derived from our weekly first preference voting question.  Respondents who select ‘don’t know’ as their first preference are not included in the results.

* Sample is the culmination of two week’s data.

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Q. How concerned are you personally about each of the following economic issues facing Australia today?

The issues that most people are very concerned about include food prices and inflation generally (55%), jobs going overseas (49%) and executive salaries (48%).   A significant number of people are very concerned about petrol and energy prices (45%) and affordability of housing (41%).

Coalition voters were more likely to be very concerned about food prices and inflation generally (60%), jobs going overseas (57%) and Government debt (54%).  Labor voters were more likely to be very concerned about executive wages (54%) and improving wages for low income earners (32%).

Females were more likely than males to be very concerned on most issues, in particular food prices and inflation generally (66% v 45%), improving wages for low income earners (34% v 22%) and unemployment (33% v 25%).

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Q. Between Liberal and Labor, which party do you think would be best at managing each of the following issues?

When it comes to which party is best at handling economic issues, Labor leads the Liberal party on managing the improvement of wages for low income earners (+17%), executive salaries (+9%) and the age pension (+9%).

Labor trails the Liberals in terms of managing government debt (-24%), followed by managing interest rates (-9%) and superannuation (-9%).

Perception of which party is best at managing the economic issues listed followed party lines.

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Q. The Federal Government plans to build a National Broadband Network over the next few years. How important do you think it is for Australia to build a National Broadband Network?

Over half (65%) of people surveyed think that the National Broadband Network (NBN) is very/quite important for Australia, 26% think it is not so important/not at all important and 8% don’t know.

Labor voters were more likely to think it is very/quite important (75%) while Coalition voters were more likely to think it is not so important/not at all important (36%).  60% of Coalition voters think the NBN is very/quite important for Australia.

People living in capital cities were slightly more likely than those living in regional areas to think the NBN is very/quite important for Australia (66% v 63%).

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