The Essential Report Archive Read the latest report

  • Jan, 2014

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    Climate change

    Q. Do you believe that there is fairly conclusive evidence that climate change is happening and caused by human activity or do you believe that the evidence is still not in and we may just be witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate which happens from time to time?

     

    Nov 09

    Dec 10

    Jun 11

    Oct 12

    Oct 13

     

    Total

     

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

    Vote other

    Climate change is happening and is caused by human activity

    53%

    45%

    50%

    48%

    52%

    51%

    70%

    29%

    80%

    46%

    We are just witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate

    34%

    36%

    39%

    39%

    36%

    39%

    22%

    61%

    10%

    41%

    Don’t know

    13%

    19%

    12%

    13%

    12%

    11%

    8%

    10%

    10%

    12%

    51% agree that climate change is happening and is caused by human activity and 39% believe that we may just be witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate. This is a similar result to when this question was previously asked in October last year.

    By age groups, those aged under 35 split 55%/32% and those aged 55+ split 43%/48%. People with higher education were more likely to think climate change is happening and is caused by human activity – those with university degrees split 59%/29%.

  • Jan, 2013

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    Federal politics – voting intention

    Q. If a Federal Election was held today to which party will you probably give your first preference vote? If not sure, which party are you currently leaning toward?

    Q. If don’t know -Well which party are you currently leaning to?

    Sample size = 1,861 respondents

    First preference/leaning to

    Election

    21 Aug 10

    Last week ago

    14/1/13

    This week

    21/01/13

    Liberal

    44%

    44%

    National

    4%

    4%

    Total Lib/Nat

    43.6%

    48%

    48%

    Labor

    38.0%

    36%

    36%

    Greens

    11.8%

    8%

    9%

    Other/Independent

    6.6%

    8%

    8%

     

    2PP

    Election

    21 Aug 10

    Last week

    This week

    Total Lib/Nat

    49.9%

    54%

    54%

    Labor

    50.1%

    46%

    46%

    NB.  The data in the above tables comprise 2-week averages derived from the first preference/leaning to voting questions.  Respondents who select ‘don’t know’ are not included in the results.  The two-party preferred estimate is calculated by distributing the votes of the other parties according to their preferences at the 2010 election. These estimates have a confidence interval of approx. plus or minus 2-3%.

  • Jan, 2013

    , , ,

    Unemployment benefits

    Q. Do you think unemployment benefits are …

     

    Total

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

    Income less than $31,200

    Income $31,200

    $51,999

    Income $52,000

    $83,199

    Income $83,200
    +

    Too generous

    25%

    18%

    32%

    21%

    13%

    18%

    24%

    35%

    About right

    30%

    30%

    34%

    26%

    30%

    31%

    31%

    32%

    Not high enough

    33%

    43%

    24%

    41%

    51%

    43%

    32%

    22%

    Don’t know

    11%

    9%

    10%

    12%

    6%

    9%

    12%

    11%

    33% think that unemployment benefits are not high enough, 30% think they are about right and 25% think they are too generous.

    Those most likely to think unemployment benefits were not high enough were Labor voters (43%), Greens voters (41%), those on lower incomes (51% of those earning less than $600pw and 43% of those earning $600-1,000pw), not working (40%) and respondents aged 45-64 (47%).

    Those most likely to think unemployment benefits were too generous were Liberal/National voters (32%), aged under 45 (31%), in full-time employment (33%) and income over $1,600pw (35%).

  • Jan, 2013

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    Welfare benefits

    Q. Which of the following statements is closest to your view?

     

    Total

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

    Income less than $31,200

    Income $31,200

    $51,999

    Income $52,000

    $83,199

    Income $83,200
    +

    Australia’s current welfare system has created a culture of dependency, whereby many people, and often whole families, get used to living off Government benefits; the system needs to be radically changed to get such people to take more responsibility for their lives and their families.

    53%

    42%

    67%

    32%

    40%

    44%

    47%

    69%

    Most people who rely on welfare benefits are victims of circumstances beyond their control. The benefits they receive are far from generous, and are the least a civilised society should provide in order to help them and their families avoid living in poverty.

    30%

    45%

    20%

    44%

    42%

    41%

    36%

    19%

    Neither

    10%

    6%

    8%

    18%

    11%

    10%

    9%

    7%

    Don’t know

    7%

    7%

    6%

    6%

    7%

    5%

    8%

    5%

    53% agreed that Australia’s current welfare system has created a culture of dependency . . . . and 30% agreed that most people who rely on welfare benefits are victims of circumstances  . . . .

    Those most likely to agree with the first statement were Liberal/National voters (67%), respondents on incomes over $1,600pw (69%) and full-time workers (61%).

    Those most likely to agree with the second statement were Labor voters (45%), Greens voters (44%), not working (37%) and incomes under $1,000pw (42%).

  • Jan, 2013

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    Trust in industries

    Q. How much trust do you have in the following industries to act in the public interest

     

    Total a lot/some trust

    A lot of trust

    Some trust

    Not much trust

    No trust at all

    Don’t know

    Agriculture

    72%

    20%

    52%

    18%

    4%

    5%

    Tourism

    68%

    12%

    56%

    22%

    6%

    5%

    Manufacturing

    56%

    8%

    48%

    30%

    8%

    7%

    Construction and development

    48%

    5%

    43%

    33%

    12%

    6%

    Retail

    47%

    3%

    44%

    38%

    12%

    3%

    Telecommunications

    37%

    3%

    34%

    41%

    18%

    3%

    Banking

    33%

    5%

    28%

    36%

    29%

    3%

    Mining

    32%

    3%

    29%

    35%

    25%

    8%

    Media

    30%

    2%

    28%

    40%

    27%

    2%

    Power companies

    18%

    1%

    17%

    37%

    41%

    4%

    The industries most trusted to act in the public interest were agriculture (72% some/a lot of trust), tourism (68%) and manufacturing (56%).

    The industries least trusted to act in the public interest were power companies (18%), the media (30%), mining (32%) and banking (33%).

    The only industry on which there were major differences was mining where 43% of Liberal/National voters had a lot/some trust compared to only 25% of Labor voters and 17% of Greens voters.

  • Jan, 2013

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    Satisfaction with current job

    Q. Overall, how satisfied are you with your current job?

     

    Total

    Men

    Women

    Aged 18
    -34

    Aged 35
    -44

    Aged 45
    +

    Income less than $31,200

    Income $31,200

    $51,999

    Income $52,000

    $83,199

    Income $83,200
    +

    Total satisfied

    71%

    67%

    77%

    71%

    75%

    70%

    73%

    58%

    74%

    74%

    Total dissatisfied

    13%

    14%

    12%

    13%

    13%

    13%

    8%

    16%

    15%

    13%

    Very satisfied

    30%

    26%

    36%

    30%

    31%

    31%

    21%

    26%

    30%

    32%

    Somewhat satisfied

    41%

    41%

    41%

    41%

    44%

    39%

    52%

    32%

    44%

    42%

    Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

    15%

    19%

    10%

    15%

    12%

    17%

    19%

    25%

    12%

    13%

    Somewhat dissatisfied

    9%

    9%

    9%

    11%

    8%

    8%

    8%

    10%

    9%

    9%

    Very dissatisfied

    4%

    5%

    3%

    2%

    5%

    5%

    6%

    6%

    4%

    Don’t know

    1%

    1%

    *

    *

    1%

    1%

    *

    71% of working people say they are satisfied with their current job while 13% are dissatisfied.

    There were few major differences across demographic groups – women (77%) tended to be more satisfied than men (67%) and those on incomes of $600-$1,000pw were least likely to be satisfied (58%).

  • Jan, 2013

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    Choice of job

    Q. If you had a choice, would you prefer to be –

    Total

    Men

    Women

    Aged 18
    -34

    Aged 35
    -44

    Aged 45
    +

    Income less than $31,200

    Income $31,200

    $51,999

    Income $52,000

    $83,199

    Income $83,200
    +

    Working in a different occupation

    30%

    35%

    24%

    35%

    25%

    28%

    22%

    36%

    36%

    30%

    Working in the same occupation but with a different employer

    18%

    18%

    18%

    19%

    18%

    17%

    33%

    9%

    19%

    18%

    Working in my current occupation with my current employer

    40%

    33%

    48%

    35%

    43%

    43%

    37%

    44%

    31%

    44%

    Don’t know

    12%

    14%

    9%

    11%

    14%

    12%

    7%

    12%

    14%

    8%

    40% agreed that if they had a choice they would prefer to be working in their current occupation with their current employer.

    30% would prefer to be in a different occupation and 18% would prefer a different employer.

    Those most likely to prefer a different occupation were men (35%), aged 18-34 (35%) and those on incomes of $600-$1,600pw (36%).

    33% of those earning under $600pw would prefer to be working in the same occupation with a different employer.

  • Jan, 2013

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    Employment by religious organisations

    Q.  Should religious organisations be allowed to refuse to hire people who don’t live according to the organisations’ beliefs?

     

    Total

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

    Men

    Women

    Aged 18-34

    Aged 35-54

    Aged 55+

    Yes

    34%

    26%

    42%

    22%

    34%

    33%

    35%

    31%

    37%

    No

    52%

    58%

    48%

    63%

    54%

    51%

    54%

    50%

    54%

    Don’t know

    14%

    16%

    10%

    15%

    12%

    15%

    11%

    19%

    9%

    34% think that religious organisations should be allowed to refuse to hire people who don’t live according to the organisations’ beliefs and 52% think they should not.

    Those most likely to think they should not were Labor voters (58%), Greens voters (63%) and respondents on lower incomes (57% of those earning less than $1,000pw).

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