Importance of Relationships with Other Countries

Q. How important is it for Australia to have a close relationship with the following nations?

	Very important	Quite important	Not very important	Don’t know		Very Important April 10	Change
United States	56%	34%	5%	4%		59%	-3
New Zealand	54%	36%	6%	5%		56%	-2
China	45%	44%	5%	6%		51%	-6
United Kingdom	44%	43%	9%	4%		46%	-2
Japan	30%	53%	10%	7%		40%	-10
Indonesia	30%	48%	15%	7%		39%	-9
India	24%	45%	23%	8%		27%	-3
Germany	15%	43%	34%	9%		18%	-3
South Africa	12%	35%	43%	10%		12%	–

More than half the respondents think it is very important to have close relationships with the United States (56%) and New Zealand (54%) and just under half think it is very important to have a close relationship with China (45%) and United Kingdom (44%).

A close relationship with the United Sates is considered very important by 65% of Liberal/National voters and 62% of Labor voters but only 37% of Greens voters. Greens voters consider relations with New Zealand (58%) and China (47%) more important.

Since this question was asked in April, the overall rating of the importance of relations with other countries has dropped – especially for Japan (-10%) and Indonesia (-9%).