banking regulation, debt, Housing affordability, inflation, party best at, pension, salaries, superannuation, tax, unemployment, wages
Q. Between Liberal and Labor, which party do you think would be best at managing each of the following issues?
| Labor | Liberal | No difference | Don’t know | Labor-Liberal difference | |
| Improving wages for low income earners | 34% | 20% | 34% | 13% | +14 |
| The age pension | 27% | 23% | 37% | 13% | +4 |
| Executive salaries | 22% | 20% | 44% | 14% | +2 |
| Unemployment | 24% | 25% | 38% | 13% | -1 |
| Regulation of large corporations | 21% | 24% | 41% | 14% | -3 |
| Affordability of housing | 19% | 24% | 44% | 13% | -5 |
| Jobs going overseas | 18% | 24% | 44% | 14% | -6 |
| Superannuation | 18% | 27% | 40% | 15% | -9 |
| Petrol and energy prices | 16% | 26% | 45% | 13% | -10 |
| Regulation of banks | 19% | 29% | 39% | 14% | -10 |
| Interest rates | 17% | 30% | 41% | 13% | -13 |
| Food prices and inflation generally | 18% | 31% | 38% | 13% | -13 |
| Taxation | 18% | 32% | 37% | 13% | -14 |
| Government debt | 15% | 42% | 31% | 12% | -27 |
The only substantial lead for the Labor Party is on improving wages for low income earners (34% to 20%).
Liberal Party strengths are in managing Government debt (42%/15%), taxation (32%/18%), food prices and inflation (31%/18%) and interest rates (30%/17%).
Although overall opinions are closely related to voting intention, the Liberal Party generally performs better among its voters than the Labor Party does with its voters. On Government debt Labor voters split 35% Labor/14% Liberal/42% no difference and on petrol and energy prices 37%/2%/50%. Comments »
banking, banking regulation, banks, EMC, Essential Report, Joe Hockey, peter lewis, private banks, regulation, The Drum
First Published on The Drum 02/11/2010
Joe Hockey is swanning around the airwaves like the coolest kid at school, convinced he’s discovered a new fad that’s sure to catch on. It’s called regulation and it rocks.
Of course many old hands may wonder whether all Joe has done is stumble upon a bit of retro, like some early Midnight Oil recordings, but right now Joe is stoked, he’s got a new tattoo and everyone is checking him out. Even the Greens want to play with him.
Still, if the old post-election cliche that the ‘people always get it right’ has any sort of credibility, Joe’s biggest risk is he’ll soon be overtaken by a bunch of converts who want to take the trend way more seriously than a wide-boy with a beat-box can.
As the latest Essential Report shows, there are votes to be won in regulating the bastard banks, especially in a week when Westpac is tipped to tip the Big Four’s profits over the $20 billion mark.
banking, banking regulation, banks
Q. Thinking about banking in Australia, do you think there needs to be more or less regulation of banks or is the present level of regulation about right?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | |
| Needs to be more regulation | 64% | 68% | 67% | 57% |
| Needs to be less regulation | 4% | 2% | 5% | 4% |
| Present regulation about right | 20% | 20% | 20% | 35% |
| Don’t know | 12% | 10% | 8% | 4% |
64% believe there needs to be more regulation of Australian banks and 20% think the present level of regulation is about right. Only 4% think there needs to be less regulation. Labor and Coalition voters show similar support for more regulation while Greens voters are more likely to approve of the present level regulation. 72% of those aged 45-64 want more regulation. Comments »
bank fees, banking, banking regulation, banks, controlling interest rates, Interest rates, loans, off-shoring, Reserve Bank, salaries
Q. Would you support or oppose the following regulations for Australia’s banks?
| Total support | Total oppose | Strongly support | Support | Oppose | Strongly oppose | Don’t know | |
| Stopping banks from sending jobs off-shore | 83% | 7% | 46% | 37% | 5% | 2% | 9% |
| Only permitting banks to change interest rates in line with Reserve Bank rates | 82% | 11% | 53% | 29% | 8% | 3% | 7% |
| Capping bank CEO’s salaries | 84% | 9% | 60% | 24% | 7% | 2% | 6% |
| Ensuring bank fees are not higher than the actual cost of the service | 91% | 4% | 67% | 24% | 3% | 1% | 4% |
| A requirement to let customers know if their personal data is being sent to other countries for processing | 93% | 2% | 71% | 22% | 2% | * | 6% |
| Tougher rules about giving loans and credit | 74% | 15% | 32% | 42% | 13% | 2% | 12% |
More than 90% support regulations requiring banks to let customers know if their personal data is being sent to other countries for processing and ensuring bank fees are not higher than the actual cost of the service. Over 80% support stopping banks from sending jobs off-shore, only permitting banks to change interest rates in line with Reserve Bank rates and capping bank CEO’s salaries.
There were no substantial differences by voting intention – all regulations were strongly supported by all voter groups.
| Total support | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | |
| Stopping banks from sending jobs off-shore | 83% | 85% | 85% | 83% |
| Only permitting banks to change interest rates in line with Reserve Bank rates | 82% | 87% | 82% | 73% |
| Capping bank CEO’s salaries | 84% | 88% | 83% | 86% |
| Ensuring bank fees are not higher than the actual cost of the service | 91% | 93% | 93% | 90% |
| A requirement to let customers know if their personal data is being sent to other countries for processing | 93% | 94% | 93% | 94% |
| Tougher rules about giving loans and credit | 74% | 71% | 80% | 77% |
banking, banking regulation, banks, Government owned bank
Support for Government-owned Bank
Q. Would you support or oppose the establishment of a Government-owned bank to compete with the private banks?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | |
| Total support | 62% | 68% | 60% | 72% |
| Total oppose | 17% | 14% | 21% | 16% |
| Strongly support | 28% | 32% | 27% | 33% |
| Support | 34% | 36% | 33% | 39% |
| Oppose | 11% | 9% | 13% | 13% |
| Strongly oppose | 6% | 5% | 8% | 3% |
| Don’t know | 22% | 19% | 19% | 13% |
62% support and 17% oppose the establishment of a Government-owned bank to compete with the private banks.
Strongest support is shown by men (68%), Greens voters (72%) and full-time workers (68%). Comments »