Perceived Impact of Budget

Q. Do you think the Federal Budget was good or bad for you personally?

Q. Do you think the Federal Budget was good or bad for Australian businesses?

Q. Do you think the Federal Budget was good or bad for the Australian economy overall?

	You personally		Businesses		The economy overall
	2010	2011	2010	2011	2010	2011
Total good	22%	11%	27%	20%	36%	27%
Total bad	26%	29%	32%	25%	28%	29%
Very good	3%	2%	3%	3%	6%	4%
Good	19%	9%	24%	17%	30%	23%
Neither good nor bad	33%	44%	9%	31%	10%	25%
Bad	18%	21%	22%	19%	18%	21%
Very bad	8%	8%	10%	6%	10%	8%
Don’t know	20%	16%	31%	23%	26%	20%

Overall there was a less positive response to the 2011 budget than to the 2010 budget. The main differences were that respondents were less likely to rate the budget good and more likely to think it was neither good nor bad. The proportions who thought it was bad were similar to last year.

44% of respondents thought the Federal budget was nether good nor bad for them personally – 11% said it was good and 29% bad. The only substantial differences by demographics were that 51% of respondents aged 55+ thought it was nether good nor bad.

25% thought the budget was bad for business, 20% good and 31% said it was neither. 35% of Labor voters said it was good for business and 45% of Liberal/National voters said it was bad.

Respondents were split over whether it was good or bad for the economy overall – 27% said it was good and 29% bad. Labor voters split 50% good/9% bad compared to Liberal/National voters at 12% good/51% bad.