Unions in Australia
Q. Overall, do you think unions have been good or bad for Australian working people?
|
19 Mar 2012 |
This week 10 Sept 12 |
Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
Work full time |
Work part time |
|
| Total good |
48% |
45% |
67% |
30% |
74% |
47% |
51% |
| Total bad |
17% |
20% |
4% |
36% |
6% |
22% |
18% |
| Very good |
12% |
11% |
20% |
4% |
28% |
11% |
12% |
| Good |
36% |
34% |
47% |
26% |
46% |
36% |
39% |
| Neither good nor bad |
28% |
27% |
24% |
30% |
13% |
25% |
21% |
| Bad |
11% |
12% |
3% |
20% |
5% |
12% |
11% |
| Very bad |
6% |
8% |
1% |
16% |
1% |
10% |
7% |
| Don’t know |
6% |
8% |
6% |
4% |
7% |
5% |
9% |
The largest portion of respondents polled believe that overall, unions have been good for Australian working people (45% total good), whilst a fifth of respondents (20%) felt that they had been bad for working people. Results have moved slightly since the last time the question was polled in March 2012, with those respondents regarding unions as good dropping from 48% to 45% and those regarding them as bad rising the equivalent amount from 17% to 20% in the same period.
Looking at the results by voting intention, Greens voters were by the most likely to believe that unions had been good for working people (74%), whilst Coalition voters were by far the most likely to believe that unions had been bad for Australian working people (36%).
The majority of part time workers believed that unions had been good for Australian working people (51%) compared with 47% of full time workers.
Better or worse off with stronger unions
Q. Overall, would workers be better off or worse off if unions in Australia were stronger?
|
Total |
Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
Work full time |
Work part time |
|
| Total better off |
39% |
58% |
24% |
71% |
40% |
40% |
| Total worse off |
30% |
17% |
47% |
9% |
35% |
24% |
| A lot better off |
13% |
24% |
7% |
20% |
15% |
13% |
| A little better off |
26% |
34% |
17% |
51% |
25% |
27% |
| A little worse off |
15% |
13% |
20% |
5% |
16% |
12% |
| A lot worse off |
15% |
4% |
27% |
4% |
19% |
12% |
| Make no difference |
15% |
12% |
18% |
7% |
16% |
15% |
| Don’t know |
15% |
14% |
12% |
13% |
9% |
21% |
The largest portion of respondents felt that workers would be better off if unions in Australia were stronger (39%), followed by 30% of respondents that believed workers would be worse off (30%). Fifteen percent (15%) felt that it would make no difference.
Looking at the results by voting intention, Greens voters were the most likely to believe that workers would be better off (71%), whilst Coalition voters were by far the most likely to believe that workers would be worse off (47%).
Whilst the same portion of full time workers and part time workers felt that workers would be better off (both 40%), full time workers were more likely to believe that workers would be worse off if unions were stronger (35%) compared to part time workers (24%).
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