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  • Apr, 2012

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    Best Leader of the Labor Party

    Q. Which of the following do you think would make the best leader of the Labor Party?

     

    30 May 2011

    Total

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

    Julia Gillard

    23%

    16%

    40%

    4%

    21%

    Kevin Rudd

    32%

    31%

    33%

    32%

    32%

    Wayne Swan

    2%

    4%

    6%

    4%

    5%

    Greg Combet

    4%

    2%

    1%

    2%

    2%

    Bill Shorten

    3%

    6%

    8%

    5%

    3%

    Someone else

    19%

    23%

    6%

    33%

    18%

    Don’t know

    17%

    17%

    6%

    19%

    19%

    33% think Kevin Rudd would make the best leader of the Labor Party and 16% prefer Julia Gillard. This represents  declines of 1% for Kevin Rudd and 7% for Julia Gillard since this question was asked nearly 12 months ago. Those selecting “someone else” has increased from 19% to 23%.

    Julia Gillard is preferred by 40% of Labor voters compared to 33% for Kevin Rudd. Men prefer Kevin Rudd over Julia Gillard 33% to 16% and women by 28% to 17%.

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  • Apr, 2012

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    Approval of Julia Gillard

    Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the job Julia Gillard is doing as Prime Minister?

     

    19 Jul 2010

    20 Dec 2010

    14 Mar

    2011

    14 June

    12 Sept

    17 Oct

    14 Nov

    12 Dec

    16 Jan 2012

    13 Feb

    12 Mar

    16 Apr

    Total approve

    52%

    43%

    41%

    34%

    28%

    34%

    37%

    34%

    37%

    36%

    32%

    32%

    Total disapprove

    30%

    40%

    46%

    54%

    64%

    59%

    55%

    54%

    52%

    53%

    61%

    58%

    Strongly approve

    11%

    10%

    7%

    6%

    5%

    7%

    8%

    6%

    6%

    6%

    8%

    7%

    Approve

    41%

    33%

    34%

    28%

    23%

    27%

    29%

    28%

    31%

    30%

    24%

    25%

    Disapprove

    17%

    24%

    22%

    29%

    28%

    27%

    25%

    25%

    27%

    26%

    29%

    31%

    Strongly disapprove

    13%

    16%

    24%

    25%

    36%

    32%

    30%

    29%

    25%

    27%

    32%

    27%

    Don’t know

    18%

    17%

    13%

    13%

    8%

    7%

    9%

    11%

    12%

    11%

    7%

    10%

    Julia Gillard’s approval rating has changed little since last month. 32% (no change) approve of the job Julia Gillard is doing as Prime Minister and 58% (down 3%) disapprove – a change in net rating from -29 to -26 over the last 5 weeks.

    67% of Labor voters approve (down 8%) and 21% disapprove (up 1%).

    By gender – men 32% approve/60% disapprove, women 32% approve/55% disapprove.

  • Apr, 2012

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    Party Best At…

    Q. Which party – Labor or Liberal – do you think is best when it comes to:

     

    Labor

    Liberal

    No difference

    Don’t know

    Difference

    Representing the interests of Australian working families

    37%

    25%

    29%

    9%

    +12

    Representing the interests of you and people like you

    29%

    35%

    26%

    10%

    -6

    Standing up for the middle class in Australia

    26%

    33%

    30%

    11%

    -7

    Representing the interests of the large corporate and financial interests

    10%

    54%

    25%

    11%

    -44

    Being more concerned about the interests of working families in Australia than the rich and large business and financial interests

    37%

    22%

    30%

    11%

    +15

    Handling the economy overall

    22%

    41%

    26%

    10%

    -19

    Handling the economy in a way that tries to take the interests of working families into consideration as much as it takes the interests of the large corporate and financial groups

    29%

    34%

    25%

    12%

    -5

    Handling the economy in a way that best helps small business

    22%

    40%

    25%

    13%

    -18

    Handling the economy in a way that best helps the middle class

    23%

    38%

    27%

    12%

    -15

    Handling the economy in a way that helps you and people like you the most.

    26%

    36%

    27%

    11%

    -10

    Labor was considered best at representing the interests of Australian working families (37%) and being more concerned about the interests of working families in Australia than the rich and large business and financial interests (37%). The Liberals were considered best on all the other measures.

    In particular, the Liberal Party was considered much better on representing the interests of the large corporate and financial interests (54%), handling the economy overall (41%) and handling the economy in a way that best helps small business (40%).

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  • Mar, 2012

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    Approval of Bob Carr

    Q. Do you approve or disapprove of former NSW Premier Bob Carr going into the Senate and taking up the position of Foreign Minister?

     

    Total

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

    Total approve

    37%

    60%

    23%

    39%

    Total disapprove

    36%

    15%

    54%

    17%

    Strongly approve

    7%

    17%

    2%

    7%

    Approve

    30%

    43%

    21%

    32%

    Disapprove

    19%

    10%

    27%

    11%

    Strongly disapprove

    17%

    5%

    27%

    6%

    Don’t know

    27%

    25%

    22%

    45%

    Opinions of the former NSW Premier Bob Carr going into the Senate and taking up the position of Foreign Minister were split – 37% approved and 36% disapproved.

    60% of Labor voters approved and 54% of Liberal/National voters disapproved.

    Respondents from New South Wales were a little more positive – 43% approve and 37% disapprove.

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  • Mar, 2012

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    Leadership Challenge Good or Bad for Government

    Q. Do you think the recent leadership challenge has been good or bad for the Labor Government?

     

    Total

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

    Total good

    13%

    30%

    7%

    16%

    Total bad

    62%

    39%

    80%

    50%

    Very good

    4%

    10%

    2%

    4

    Good

    9%

    20%

    5%

    12%

    Neither good nor bad

    18%

    26%

    12%

    28%

    Bad

    24%

    25%

    22%

    28%

    Very bad

    38%

    14%

    58%

    22%

    Don’t know

    6%

    4%

    2%

    6%

    62% think that the recent leadership challenge was bad for the Labor Party and only 13% think it was good.

    Labor voters were split – 39% think it was bad, 30% good and 26% neither good nor bad.

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  • Mar, 2012

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    More or Less Likely to Vote Labor

    Q. Has the re-election of Julia Gillard as leader of the Labor Party made you more or less likely to support the ALP at the next federal election.

     

    Total

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

    Total more likely

    13%

    33%

    5%

    18%

    Total less likely

    47%

    21%

    64%

    38%

    Much more likely

    6%

    17%

    1%

    5%

    A little more likely

    7%

    16%

    4%

    13%

    A little less likely

    10%

    11%

    7%

    16%

    Much less likely

    37%

    10%

    57%

    22%

    Makes no difference

    34%

    42%

    30%

    43%

    Don’t know

    5%

    3%

    1%

    47% say that the re-election of Julia Gillard as leader has made them less likely to support the Labor Party and only 13% say it has made them more likely to support the Labor Party at the next election.

    Among Labor voters, 33% say it has made them more likely and 21% less likely to support Labor.

    Comments »

  • Mar, 2012

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    Kevin Rudd’s Future

    Q. What do you think Kevin Rudd should do now?

     

    Total

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

    Stay in Parliament and challenge again

    29%

    30%

    28%

    29%

    Stay in Parliament and not challenge again

    28%

    44%

    17%

    46%

    Resign from Parliament

    30%

    17%

    44%

    20%

    Don’t know

    13%

    8%

    10%

    5%

    Respondents were divided about what Kevin Rudd should do – 30% say he should resign from parliament, 29% think he should stay and challenge again and 28% think he should stay and not challenge again.

    Among Labor voters, 44% think he should stay and not challenge, while 44% of Liberal/National voters think he should resign from Parliament. 46% of Greens voters think he should stay in Parliament and not challenge again.

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  • Mar, 2012

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    Performance during Leadership Challenge

    Q. How would you rate the performance of the following during the Labor leadership challenge?

     

    Total good

    Total poor

    Very good

    Good

    Average

    Poor

    Very poor

    Don’t know

    Julia Gillard

    23%

    49%

    10%

    13%

    24%

    17%

    32%

    4%

    Kevin Rudd

    33%

    35%

    12%

    21%

    27%

    16%

    19%

    4%

    Labor Party Ministers

    10%

    52%

    2%

    8%

    30%

    25%

    27%

    8%

    Tony Abbott

    25%

    40%

    9%

    16%

    27%

    18%

    22%

    8%

    The media

    14%

    43%

    3%

    11%

    35%

    20%

    23%

    6%

    Apart from Kevin Rudd, the performance of all parties to the leadership challenge were rated poorly.

    33% thought the performance of Kevin Rudd was good and 35% poor. For Julia Gillard the rating was 23% good and 49% poor. Labor Party Ministers were rated most negatively – 10% good and 52% poor.

    However, Julia Gillard was rated a little better than Kevin Rudd by Labor voters – their rating of Julia Gillard was 50% good/15% poor compared to 49% good/22% poor for Kevin Rudd.

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