Q. Thinking about some of the major decisions the Federal Government has made over the years, do you think the following decisions have been good for Australia or bad for Australia?
Total good | Total bad | Very good | Good | Neither good nor bad | Bad | Very bad | Don’t know | 2011 total good | 2011 total bad | |||
Introducing the GST | 46% | 22% | 12% | 34% | 25% | 13% | 9% | 7% | 39% | 30% | ||
Privatising Qantas | 28% | 33% | 6% | 22% | 26% | 23% | 10% | 14% | 23% | 44% | ||
Privatising Telstra | 22% | 42% | 6% | 16% | 24% | 27% | 15% | 12% | 20% | 53% | ||
Privatising the Commonwealth Bank | 24% | 39% | 7% | 17% | 24% | 24% | 15% | 14% | 26% | 42% | ||
Floating the dollar | 33% | 12% | 11% | 22% | 28% | 8% | 4% | 27% | 46% | 11% | ||
Free trade agreements | 38% | 21% | 11% | 27% | 24% | 13% | 8% | 18% | 41% | 21% | ||
Compulsory superannuation | 71% | 8% | 36% | 35% | 14% | 5% | 3% | 7% | 79% | 7% | ||
Medibank (now Medicare) | 63% | 10% | 31% | 32% | 19% | 7% | 3% | 9% | 76% | 6% | ||
Reducing subsidies to car manufacturing | 28% | 27% | 10% | 18% | 28% | 18% | 9% | 16% | – | – |
Only the Government decisions to introduce compulsory superannuation (71%) and Medibank (63%) were considered good for Australia by a majority of respondents – although opinions on floating the dollar (33% good/12% bad), free trade agreements (38%/21%), the GST (46%/22%) and (by only a small margin) reducing subsidies to car manufacturing (28% good/27% poor) were more likely to be positive than negative.
The decisions to privatise three major national enterprises were more likely to be considered bad; 42% think privatising Telstra was bad (22% good), 33% thought privatising Qantas was bad (28% good) and 39% thought privatising the Commonwealth Bank was bad (24% good).