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).