Q. To what extent would you support or oppose setting a zero-carbon pollution target for 2050 if it were adopted by the Federal Government?

• 75% of participants support setting a zero-carbon pollution target for 2050 if it were adopted by the Federal Government, up from 71% in January.
• The majority of all party voter support the introduction of targets. 91% of Greens voters, 80% of Labor and 68% of Coalition party voters all support the introduction of targets.
• Women (79%), capital city residents (77%) and Greens voters (91%) are most likely to support this initiative.
• Men (70%), non-capital city residents (70%) and independent/other party voters (63%) are least likely to support this initiative.

Q. To what extent would you support or oppose the following policy proposals if they were adopted by the Federal Government?

• 81% of participants support the accelerated development of new industries and jobs that are powered by renewable energy and 71% support a zero-carbon pollution target to be set for 2050.
• Support for all policies was higher among Labor and greens voters, and lower among Coalition.

Q. Do you believe that there is fairly conclusive evidence that climate change is happening and caused by human activity or do you believe that the evidence is still not in and we may just be witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate which happens from time to time?

 61% believe that climate change is happening and is caused by human activity. This is consistent with previous results in Mar’19 (62%) and Oct’18 (63%).

• 28% believe that we may just be witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate, no change from earlier in the year (27% in March).
• By age groups, those aged 18-34 were most likely to believe in man-made climate change (74%) and those over 55+ least so (50%).
• Less than half of Coalition votes (47%) believe that climate change is happening and is caused by human activity.

Q. As far as you know, do you think Australia is doing enough, not enough or too much to address climate change?

• 60% now think Australia is not doing enough to address climate change, this has increased from 51% in March 2019.
• Those people most likely to think Australia was not doing enough include young people aged 18-34 (69%), Greens voters (87%) and Labor voters (72%).

Q. Thinking about the bushfires in Queensland and New South Wales, which of the following statements is closest to your view?

•  43% now think It likely that the bushfires are linked to climate change and it is appropriate to publicly raise this issue. When this question was last asked in 2013, 27% gave this answer.
• The proportion of people who think it is likely that the bushfires are linked to climate change but it is inappropriate to publicly raise this issue at this this time has remained fairly constant. 17% saying this in 2019, and 14% in 2013.
• Those least likely to think bushfires are linked to climate change and it is appropriate to publicly raise this issue are Coalition (31%) and other minor party and independent voters (31%).

Q. As far as you know, do you think Australia is doing enough, not enough or too much to address climate change?

53% think Australia is not doing enough to address climate change and 24% think Australia is doing enough.

Those most likely to think Australia is not dong enough were aged 18-34 (63%) and university educated (62%).

Q. Which of the following international issues represents the biggest threat to the world? And which is the second biggest threat? 

61% think that terrorism is one of the two biggest threats to the world and 51% nominated global economic instability as one of the biggest threats.

38% think climate change is one of the two biggest threats.

Labor and Liberal/National voters nominated terrorism and global economic instability as the biggest threats while Greens voters were more likely to think climate change was a bigger threat (68%). Only 21% of Liberal/National voters think climate change is one of the two biggest threats.

Q. Which of the following international issues represents the biggest threat to Australia? And which is the second biggest threat? 

55% think that global economic instability is one of the two biggest threats to Australia and 47% nominated terrorism as one of the biggest threats.

38% think climate change is one of the two biggest threats and 36% nominated the Chinese economic slowdown.

Labor voters think global economic instability, terrorism and climate change represent similar levels of threat while Liberal/National voters were more likely to think the Chinese economic slowdown was a threat. Only 18% of Liberal/National voters thought climate change was one of the two biggest threats to Australia.