Banking and finance, banks, Commonwealth Bank, financial planning, royal commission
Q. Following reports of fraud, forgery and a cover-up in the financial planning division of the Commonwealth Bank, there have been calls for a Royal Commission. Would you agree or disagree that there needs to be a Royal Commission into banks and financial planning?
|
Total |
|
Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
Vote Other |
|
Received financial advice |
|
| Total agree |
73% |
76% |
70% |
75% |
71% |
80% |
||
| Total disagree |
11% |
6% |
16% |
4% |
14% |
12% |
||
| Strongly agree |
34% |
35% |
29% |
37% |
42% |
33% |
||
| Agree |
39% |
41% |
41% |
38% |
29% |
47% |
||
| Disagree |
8% |
5% |
11% |
4% |
9% |
10% |
||
| Strongly disagree |
3% |
1% |
5% |
– |
5% |
2% |
||
| Don’t know |
17% |
17% |
15% |
20% |
14% |
8% |
73% agree and only 11% disagree that there needs to be a Royal Commission into banks and financial planning.
At least 70% of all voter groups agree and 80% of people who have used a planner or received a financial advice also agree.
Commonwealth Bank, ER, Essential Report, Federal Government, GST, Privatising Medicare, Qantas, superannuation, Telstra, trade protection
Q. Thinking about some of the major decisions the Federal Government has made over recent years, do you think the following decisions have been good for Australia or bad for Australia?
| Total good | Total Bad | Very good | Good | Neither good nor bad | Bad | Very bad | Don’t know | |
| Introducing the GST | 39% | 30% | 10% | 29% | 24% | 17% | 13% | 7% |
| Privatising Qantas | 23% | 44% | 4% | 19% | 20% | 31% | 13% | 13% |
| Privatising Telstra | 20% | 53% | 4% | 16% | 16% | 32% | 21% | 10% |
| Privatising the Commonwealth Bank | 26% | 42% | 7% | 19% | 19% | 25% | 17% | 13% |
| Floating the dollar | 46% | 11% | 13% | 33% | 22% | 7% | 4% | 21% |
| Free trade agreements | 41% | 21% | 11% | 30% | 21% | 13% | 8% | 18% |
| Compulsory superannuation | 79% | 7% | 42% | 37% | 10% | 4% | 3% | 5% |
| Medibank (now Medicare) | 76% | 6% | 38% | 38% | 12% | 4% | 2% | 6% |
Only the Government decisions to introduce compulsory superannuation (79%) and Medibank (76%) were considered good for Australia by a majority of respondents – although opinions of floating the dollar (46% good/11% bad), free trade agreements (41%/21%) and the GST (39%/30%) were more likely to be positive than negative.
The decisions to privatize three major national enterprises were more likely to be considered bad. Although Labor voters were more negative about privatisations, Liberal/National voters were also more likely to describe them bad for Australia – Qantas 47% bad/34% good, Telstra 49%/29% and Commonwealth Bank 38%/36%.
47% of Labor voters thought the introduction of the GST was bad while 50% of Liberal/National voters thought it was good.
Commonwealth Bank, ER, Essential Report, Federal Government, GST, Privatising Medicare, Qantas, superannuation, Telstra, trade protection
Q. Would you support or oppose the Federal Government taking any of the following decisions –
| Total support | Total oppose | Strongly support | Support | Oppose | Strongly oppose | Don’t know | |
| Abolishing the GST | 35% | 43% | 14% | 21% | 24% | 19% | 21% |
| Buying back Qantas | 43% | 34% | 13% | 30% | 23% | 11% | 22% |
| Buying back Telstra | 47% | 33% | 16% | 31% | 22% | 11% | 20% |
| Buying back the Commonwealth Bank | 41% | 36% | 13% | 28% | 24% | 12% | 23% |
| Regulating the dollar | 32% | 36% | 10% | 22% | 22% | 14% | 32% |
| Increasing trade protection | 59% | 20% | 20% | 39% | 13% | 7% | 21% |
| Making superannuation voluntary | 24% | 64% | 9% | 15% | 26% | 38% | 13% |
| Privatising Medicare | 11% | 74% | 4% | 7% | 26% | 48% | 17% |
When asked whether these decisions should be reversed, 59% supported increasing trade protection and 47% supported buying back Telstra. There was very strong opposition to privatizing Medicare (74%) and making superannuation voluntary (64%). No other issues had clear majority support or opposition.
Liberal/National voters supported buying back Telstra (47% to 39%), were split on Qantas (43%/41%), but opposed buying back the Commonwealth Bank (39%/44%).
Although Coalition voters were more likely to think free trade agreements were good for Australia (41%/25%), they were also more likely than Labor voters to support increasing trade protection (64%/19%) – 59% of Labor voters supported more trade protection and 21% opposed.