Q. Do you think a Federal Government led by Labor or the Coalition would be better at…?

• A Coalition government is thought to be better than Labor at governance issues such as reducing national debt (42% to 28%) and managing the economy (44% to 31%).
• Elements where Labor is seen to do a better job than the Coalition is in supporting those in financial need (42% to 35%) and improving the financial situation for women (38% to 31%).
• Both parties are seen to be equally competent to create jobs (39% Coalition, 38% Labor) and helping those who have lost work due to Covid-19 (38% Coalition, 40% Labor).

Q. Do you think a Federal Government led by Labor or the Coalition would be better at…?

• A Coalition government is thought to be better than Labor at governance issues such as recovering the economy from Covid-19 (46% Coalition), reducing national debt (45%) and managing the economy (44%).
• Elements where Labor is seen to do a better job than the Coalition is in improving the education system (41%), supporting those in financial need (43%) an creating jobs (40%).
• Across all issues between one-fifth (22%) and almost a third (30%) of participants believe that neither party would be better at any of the listed elements.

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.