Q. The Deputy Leader of the Nationals has resigned for having a conflict of interest in awarding a grant to a shooting club of which she was a member. Which of the following statements do you agree with?

• 70% of participants agree that the investigation into the Deputy Nationals Leader needs to continue to investigate any MP involved in the allocation of sports grants. Half (49%) of participants agree that the minister’s resignation should be the end of the matter.
• Coalition voters are more likely to agree that the minister’s resignation should be the end of the matter (61%) than all other voters (44%).
• Additionally, Coalition voters are least likely to agree that the investigation needs to continue (65%) and giving grants to sports organisations in marginal seats was only done to influence the election result in the Governments favour (56%), than all other voters (76% and 74%).

Q. Do you think under the Coalition Government, relations with the following countries will improve or get worse?

For most countries, about half think that relations will stay much the same. The exceptions were China (19% improve, 22% get worse) and Indonesia (11% improve, 49% get worse).

Respondents were more likely to think that relations with the United States, New Zealand and United Kingdom would improve.

The main differences by party preference were for China (Labor 7% improve/38% get worse compared to Lib/Nat 33% improve/6% get worse) and Indonesia (Labor 4% improve/68% get worse compared to Lib/Nat 21% improve/31% get worse).

Q.  Which party would you trust most to handle the following issues?

Note – Differences are calculated by subtracting Liberal % from Labor % – except for the two issues on which the Greens lead in which case it is Greens minus Liberal.

The Labor Party is trusted more to handle a quality education for all children (+10) and a fair industrial relations system (+10).

The Liberal Party is trusted more to handle management of the economy (-15), treatment of asylum seekers (-13), controlling interest rates (-12) and security and the war on terrorism (-11).

There have been no major changes since this question was last asked in July.

The Labor Party is viewed more favourably than the Liberal Party in terms of looking after the interest of working people, being too close to the big corporate and financial interests, having good policies and less out of touch with ordinary people.

The Liberal Party is seen more favourably in terms of being divided and clear about what they stand for.

Q. The Government’s NBN (National Broadband Network) is a fast, high capacity fibre network to the home reaching 93% of Australian homes and businesses.

The Coalition has proposed a broadband plan in which the NBN would be replaced with broadband fibre to local “nodes” (or exchanges) and the existing telephone copper network would connect the rest of the way to homes. This would mean slower broadband speeds than the NBN but cost less to build. Do you support the Government’s or the Coalition’s broadband policy?

54% support the Government’s broadband policy and 23% support the Coalition’s policy.

For those aged 18-34, 61% support the Government’s policy and 15% support the Coalition’s. 51% of those aged 35-54 and 49% of those aged 55+ support the Government’s policy.

Q. Do you think that if Tony Abbott and Coalition win the next election, they will deliver a budget surplus in their first year of Government?

60% think that if Tony Abbott and Coalition win the next election, they probably won’t deliver a budget surplus in their first year of Government and 19% think they probably will.

A majority of all demographic and voter groups (including Liberal/National voters) think the Coalition will probably not deliver a surplus in their first year if elected.

Q. Do you think you personally would be better off or worse off financially if Tony Abbott and the Liberals were in Government?

30% of respondents think they would be personally better off financially if the Liberals were in Government and 32% think they would be financially worse off. 24% think it would make no difference to them financially.

Respondents aged 45-64 thought they would be more likely to be worse off (32% better/40% worse) while for those aged 65+, 47% thought they would be better off and 24% worse off.

Q. If a Federal Election was held today to which party will you probably give your first preference vote? If not sure, which party are you currently leaning toward?

Q. If don’t know -Well which party are you currently leaning to?

Sample size = 1,853 respondents

NB.  The data in the above tables comprise 2-week averages derived from the first preference/leaning to voting questions.  Respondents who select ‘don’t know’ are not included in the results.  The two-party preferred estimate is calculated by distributing the votes of the other parties according to their preferences at the 2010 election. These estimates have a confidence interval of approx. + or – 2%.