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 = 1,797 respondents

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%.

Q. How likely is it that you will change your mind about who you vote for before the Federal election to be held in September this year?

74% of Labor voters will definitely not or are very unlikely to change their vote compared to 86% of Liberal/National voters but only 49% of Greens voters.

25% of aged 18-34, 20% of aged 35-54 and 11% of aged 55+ say they may change their mind.

Q. Which of the following is the main reason you would vote for the Labor Party if there was an election today?

More than one third said the main reason they would be voting Labor was they don’t want Tony Abbott as Prime Minister.

28% said they always vote Labor and 11% said the Labor Party had been a good Government.

Q. Which of the following is the main reason you would vote for the Liberal or National Party if there was an election today?

One third say they would vote Liberal/National because the Labor Party has been a poor Government. 21% say they always vote Liberal/National and 17% don’t want Julia Gillard as Prime Minister.

40% of men and 27% of women say the Labor Party has been a poor Government.

Q. Thinking about the media in Australia, do you think there needs to be more or less regulation of the media or is the present level of regulation about right?

29% think the media in Australia needs more regulation, 10% think it needs less regulation and 43% think the present regulation is about right.

38% of Labor voters and 40% of Greens voters think it needs more regulation.

Q. The Federal Government has proposed new legislation to regulate the media – including  appointing an advocate to oversee the current self-regulatory bodies such as the Press Council and with the power to prevent media mergers not considered to be in the public interest. How much have you read or heard about the Government’s plans to introduce new regulation of the media?

60% said they had heard little or nothing about the Federal Government’s proposed legislation to regulate the media. Only 12% said they had read or heard a lot and 22% said they had read/heard some.

Those most likely to have read/heard a lot/some were men (45%), Liberal/National voters (40%) and aged 55+ (50%).

Q. Do you think the media reporting and commentary on this issue has been good or poor?

31% of those who had read/heard about the proposed legislation think the media reporting and commentary has been good and 25% think it has been poor.

Those most likely to think it has been poor were Labor voters (34%) and Greens voters (33%).

Q. Do you support or oppose the Government’s plans to reform regulation of the media?

29% support the Government’s proposed media regulation and 34% oppose. 36% have no opinion. Labor voters tend to support the legislation (49% to 18%) and Liberal/National voters tend to oppose by a similar margin (18% to 50%). 51% of those aged 55+ oppose the legislation.