The Essential Report Archive Read the latest report

  • Aug, 2015

    Party with Best Policy on Handling Asylum Seeker issue

    Q. Which party has the best policy for handling the issue of asylum seekers arriving by boat?

      Total   Vote Labor Vote Lib/Nat Vote Greens Vote other   Jun 2013
    Labor 12% 32% 2% 4% 1% 13%
    Liberal 37% 11% 78% 4% 32% 38%
    Greens 8% 7% 3% 55% 6% 7%
    None of them 24% 29% 11% 27% 41% 31%
    Don’t know 19% 21% 6% 9% 19% 11%

    37% think the Liberal Party has the best policy for handling the issue of asylum seekers arriving by boat and 12% think the Labor Party has the best policy. 24% think no party has the best policy. These results are very similar to those from June 2013.

    Only 32% of Labor voters think the Labor Party has the best policy compared with 78% of Liberal/National voters who think the Liberals have the best policy.

    Of those who think the asylum seeker issue is one of or the most important election issue, 46% think that the Liberals have the best policy, 15% think Labor has the best policy, 12% think the Greens have the best policy and 14% think none of them do.

  • Aug, 2014

    , ,

    Government’s handling of asylum seekers

    Q. Which of the following words would you use to describe the Government’s handling of the issue of asylum seekers? 

     

    Total

     

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

    Vote Other

     

    Men

    Women

    Aged 18-34

    Aged 35-54

    Aged 55+

    Responsible

    45%

    26%

    75%

    14%

    42%

    50%

    40%

    30%

    43%

    64%

    Fair

    45%

    25%

    76%

    10%

    44%

    48%

    41%

    29%

    43%

    66%

    Too secretive

    45%

    69%

    16%

    75%

    54%

    44%

    46%

    50%

    45%

    40%

    Just playing politics

    45%

    65%

    20%

    66%

    56%

    48%

    41%

    51%

    45%

    36%

    Principled

    43%

    28%

    69%

    25%

    29%

    49%

    36%

    30%

    45%

    54%

    Stubborn

    42%

    57%

    24%

    72%

    44%

    43%

    41%

    47%

    39%

    42%

    Balanced

    37%

    20%

    65%

    13%

    26%

    42%

    32%

    23%

    37%

    54%

    Unethical

    33%

    50%

    10%

    69%

    37%

    32%

    35%

    41%

    32%

    26%

    Populist

    31%

    38%

    23%

    37%

    37%

    36%

    25%

    28%

    33%

    31%

    Cruel

    30%

    46%

    10%

    64%

    34%

    29%

    32%

    39%

    29%

    23%

    Too hard

    29%

    44%

    10%

    61%

    32%

    27%

    31%

    36%

    28%

    23%

    Too soft

    26%

    22%

    30%

    12%

    37%

    29%

    24%

    19%

    27%

    34%

    Respondents were more likely to describe the Government’s handling of the issue of asylum seekers as “responsible” and “fair” but also as “too secretive” and “just playing politics” (all 45%). 26% describe their handling of the issue as “too soft”, 29% as “too hard” and 30% as “cruel”.

    Liberal/National voters were most likely to think the handling was “fair” (76%) and “responsible” (75%).

    Labor voters were most likely to think the handling was “too secretive” (69%) and “just playing politics” (65%).

    Greens voters were most likely to think the handling was “too secretive” (75%), “stubborn” (72%) and “unethical” (69%).

    Of those aged under 35, only 23% thought the handling of the issue was “balanced” and 29% thought it was “fair”.

  • Jul, 2014

    ,

    Government handling of asylum seekers issue

    Q. How would you rate the performance of the Federal Liberal/National Government in handling the issue of asylum seekers arriving by boat? 

      

    Total

     

     

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

    Vote other

     

    5 Mar

    Total good

    41%

    19%

    76%

    8%

    41%

    39%

    Total poor

    35%

    54%

    7%

    74%

    34%

    38%

    Very good

    24%

    6%

    52%

    6%

    21%

    18%

    Good

    17%

    13%

    24%

    2%

    20%

    21%

    Neither good nor poor

    18%

    20%

    14%

    10%

    21%

    18%

    Poor

    12%

    20%

    4%

    6%

    15%

    15%

    Very poor

    23%

    34%

    3%

    68%

    19%

    23%

    Don’t know

    7%

    8%

    2%

    7%

    4%

    5%

    41% (up 2% since March) think the Government’s performance in handling the issue of asylum seekers arriving by boat has been good and 35% (down 3%) think it has been poor.

    Those most likely to think it has been good were Liberal/National voters (76%) and aged 55+ (54%).

    Those most likely to think it has been poor were Labor voters (54%) and Greens voters (74%).

  • Jul, 2014

    , ,

    Too soft or too tough on asylum seekers

    Q. Do you think the Federal Liberal/National Government is too tough or too soft on asylum seekers or is it taking the right approach?

     

     

    Total

     

     

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

    Vote other

     

    Oct 10

    Jul 12

    Jan 14

    Mar 14

    Too tough

    27%

    46%

    5%

    71%

    21%

    7%

    12%

    22%

    25%

    Too soft

    18%

    17%

    20%

    8%

    24%

    63%

    60%

    25%

    28%

    Taking the right approach

    36%

    19%

    65%

    7%

    37%

    18%

    11%

    35%

    34%

    Don’t know

    18%

    19%

    9%

    14%

    17%

    12%

    17%

    18%

    13%

    18% think the Government is too soft on asylum seekers, 27% think they are too tough and 36% think they are taking the right approach.

    Since this question was last asked in March, those thinking the Government are too tough has increased slightly from 25% to 27% – while too soft has declined from 28% to 18%. Those unable to give an opinion has increased from 13% to 18%.

    Those most likely to think they are taking the right approach were Liberal/National voters (65%) and aged 55+ (52%).

  • Jul, 2013

    , , ,

    Party with best policy on handling asylum seeker issue

    Q. Which party has the best policy for handling the issue of asylum seekers arriving by boat?

     

    Total

     

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

     

    17 Jun 13

    Labor

    25%

    58%

    4%

    10%

    13%

    Liberal

    26%

    3%

    57%

    2%

    38%

    Greens

    6%

    5%

    1%

    44%

    7%

    None of them

    28%

    21%

    25%

    29%

    31%

    Don’t know

    15%

    13%

    13%

    15%

    11%

    26% (down 12% since June) think the Liberal Party has the best policy for handling the issue of asylum seekers arriving by boat and 25% (up 12%) think the Labor Party has the best policy. 28% think no party has the best policy.

    58% (up 22%) of Labor voters think the Labor Party has the best policy compared with 57% (down 17%) of Liberal/National voters who think the Liberals have the best policy.

    Of those who think the asylum seeker issue is one of or the most important election issue, 35% think that Labor has the best policy, 29% think the Liberals have the best policy and 17% think none of them do.

     

  • Jul, 2012

    , , , , , , ,

    Asylum Seeker Policies

    Q. Thinking about handling the issue of asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat, which approach do you favour?

     

    Total

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

    The Labor policy of offshore processing in Malaysia

    18%

    44%

    3%

    17%

    The Liberal policy of offshore processing in Nauru

    35%

    8%

    68%

    2%

    The Greens policy of onshore processing in Australia

    14%

    15%

    6%

    57%

    None of above

    16%

    14%

    12%

    14%

    Don’t know

    17%

    18%

    11%

    9%

    The Liberal’s policy of offshore processing asylum seekers in Nauru was the most preferred option (35%). 18% favoured the Labor policy of offshore processing in Malaysia and 14% favoured the Greens’ policy of onshore processing in Australia.

    A majority of Liberal/National voters and Greens voters favoured their own party’s policy but only 44% of Labor voters favoured the Labor policy.

    The Liberal’s policy was favoured by 41% of men and 47% of those aged 55+.

Error: