communications, EMC, ER, Essential Media, Essential Report, Greens, Labor, Liberal, National Broadband Network, NBN, opinion
Q. From what you’ve heard, do you favour or oppose the planned national broadband network (NBN)?
| 27 Sep 2010 | 14 Feb 2011 | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | |
| Total favour | 56% | 48% | 65% | 30% | 71% |
| Total oppose | 18% | 31% | 12% | 55% | 13% |
| Strongly favour | 27% | 19% | 30% | 8% | 38% |
| Favour | 29% | 29% | 35% | 22% | 33% |
| Oppose | 12% | 16% | 8% | 26% | 8% |
| Strongly oppose | 6% | 15% | 4% | 29% | 5% |
| Don’t know | 26% | 22% | 22% | 15% | 15% |
48% favour the planned national broadband network and 31% oppose. This represents a significant drop in support for the NBN since this question was asked in September last year.
By age, under 35’s favour the NBN by 46%/23% but those aged 55+ are split 42%/42%.
ABC, EMC, ER, Essential Media, Essential Report, peter lewis, political reporting, political research, Politics, Polling, polls, The Drum
First published on The Drum: 08/02/2011
When the floods have receded, the cyclone has blown, the bushfires have burned out and Sydneysiders can sleep again, one question will remain: what if the hippies are right?
Willingness to convince the public there is a link between extreme weather and climate change will go a long way towards determining whether the Prime Minister can meet her own KPI of securing a price on carbon.
Recent history shows that the public responds to the need for action on climate change when warnings are being reinforced by their own experiences and observations. It is no coincidence that support for action peaked in the middle of the last drought and fell away as weather patterns returned to something close to normal.
Now we have a summer from climate apocalypse central casting – but as this week’s Essential Report shows – climate change is barely on the radar.
EMC, ER, Essential Question, Essential Report, Network 10, Network Ten, Network Ten Essential Question 110207 7th February 2011, poll, Polling
Q. Do you think the Independents in Federal Parliament that are supporting the Government should continue to support the Labor Government or should they switch their support to the Liberal/National coalition? (Question commissioned by Network Ten)
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Aged 18-34 | Aged
35-54 |
Aged 55+ | |
| Continue to support Labor | 43% | 87% | 6% | 73% | 43% | 45% | 39% |
| Switch support to the Liberals and Nationals | 30% | 1% | 71% | 6% | 23% | 29% | 42% |
| Don’t know | 27% | 13% | 23% | 21% | 34% | 26% | 19% |
43% of respondents believed that the Independent MPs should continue to support the Labor Government and 30% thought they should switch their support to the coalition. 27% had no opinion either way.
Opinions closely followed voting intentions – and Greens voters overwhelmingly favoured continued support for the Government.
By age, younger voters tended to favour the independents continuing to support the Government while older voters were more likely to think they should switch.
2PP, Election, EMC, ER, Essential Media, Essential Report, federal politics, Greens, Labor, Liberal, Polling, polls, two party preferred, Voting intention
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 = 1,936
| First preference/leaning to | Election
21 Aug 10 |
2 weeks ago | Last week | This week |
| Liberal | 42% | 42% | 43% | |
| National | 3% | 3% | 3% | |
| Total Lib/Nat | 43.6 | 45% | 45% | 46% |
| Labor | 38.0 | 37% | 37% | 38% |
| Greens | 11.8 | 11% | 11% | 10% |
| Other/Independent | 6.6 | 7% | 7% | 7% |
| 2PP | Election
21 Aug 10 |
2 weeks ago | Last week | This week |
| Total Lib/Nat | 49.9% | 51% | 51% | 51% |
| Labor | 50.1% | 49% | 49% | 49% |
NB. The data in the above tables comprise 2-week averages derived 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.
ALP, EMC, ER, Essential Report, Julia Gillard, Labor Party, Polling, polls, Prime Minister, Prime Minister attributes
Q. Which of the following describe your opinion of the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard?
| 5 Jul 10 | 4 Oct 10 | 7 Feb 11 | Difference | |
| Intelligent | 87% | 81% | 75% | -6% |
| Hard-working | 89% | 82% | 76% | -6% |
| A capable leader | 72% | 59% | 52% | -7% |
| Arrogant | 37% | 39% | 44% | +5% |
| Out of touch with ordinary people | 35% | 44% | 50% | +6% |
| Understands the problems facing Australia | 68% | 55% | 52% | -3% |
| Visionary | 48% | 38% | 30% | -8% |
| Superficial | 51% | * | ||
| Good in a crisis | 61% | 46% | 46% | – |
| Narrow-minded | 28% | 35% | 43% | +8% |
| More honest than most politicians | 45% | 37% | 37% | – |
| Trustworthy | 49% | 42% | 40% | -2% |
Julia Gillard’s key attributes were hard-working (76%) and intelligent (75%).
Major changes since this question was asked in October 2010 were increases of 8% for narrow-minded (to 43%) and 6% for out of touch (to 50%) and decreases for visionary (down 8% to 30%), a capable leader (down 7% to 52%), intelligent (down 6% to 75%) and hard-working (down 6% to 76%).
Coalition, EMC, ER, Essential Report, Liberal Party, Opposition leader, Opposition Leader attributes, Polling, polls, tony abbott
Q. Which of the following describe your opinion of the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott?
| 5 Jul 10 | 4 Oct 10 | 7 Feb 11 | Change | |
| Intelligent | 70% | 71% | 64% | -7% |
| Hard-working | 76% | 78% | 72% | -6% |
| A capable leader | 47% | 52% | 48% | -4% |
| Arrogant | 59% | 60% | 58% | -2% |
| Out of touch with ordinary people | 57% | 53% | 54% | +1% |
| Understands the problems facing Australia | 50% | 53% | 50% | -3% |
| Visionary | 32% | 31% | 27% | -4% |
| Superficial | 45% | * | ||
| Good in a crisis | 40% | 42% | 41% | -1% |
| Narrow-minded | 56% | 53% | 51% | -2% |
| More honest than most politicians | 33% | 32% | 31% | -1% |
| Trustworthy | 33% | 35% | 34% | -1% |
Tony Abbott’s key attributes were hard-working (72%), intelligent (64%) and arrogant (58%).
Major changes since this question was asked in October 2010 were decreases for intelligent (down 7% to 64%) and hard-working (down 6% to 72%).
EMC, ER, Essential Report, Greens, Julia Gillard, Labor, leader attributes, Leader comparisons, Liberal, negative attributes, Polling, polls, positive attributes, tony abbott
| Julia Gillard | Tony Abbott | Difference | |
| Intelligent | 75% | 64% | +11% |
| Hard-working | 76% | 72% | +4% |
| A capable leader | 52% | 48% | +4% |
| Arrogant | 44% | 58% | -14% |
| Out of touch with ordinary people | 50% | 54% | -4% |
| Understands the problems facing Australia | 52% | 50% | +2% |
| Visionary | 30% | 27% | +3% |
| Superficial | 51% | 45% | +6% |
| Good in a crisis | 46% | 41% | +5% |
| Narrow-minded | 43% | 51% | -8% |
| More honest than most politicians | 37% | 31% | +6% |
| Trustworthy | 40% | 34% | +6% |
Julia Gillard leads Tony Abbott on all positive attributes and Tony Abbott leads on all negative attributes except for superficial (Gillard 51%/Abbott 45%).
The main differences between the leaders were for arrogant (Gillard 44%/Abbott 58%), intelligent (75%/64%) and narrow-minded (43%/51%).
EMC, ER, Essential Report, Flood Damage, flood levy, Flood Response, flooding, Floods, levy, Polling, polls, recent floods, taxpayers
Q. The Federal Government has announced a one-off levy on tax-payers and cuts in spending to fund the damage from the recent floods across Australia. Do you agree or disagree with each of the following actions they have taken?
| Total agree | Total disagree | Strongly agree | Agree | Disagree | Strongly disagree | Don’t know | |
| A levy on taxpayers earning over $50,000 | 44% | 50% | 14% | 30% | 23% | 27% | 7% |
| Scrapped cash for clunkers (Grants for owners of old cars to buy new cars) | 59% | 29% | 24% | 35% | 18% | 11% | 11% |
| Scrapped the Green Car innovation fund | 43% | 39% | 16% | 27% | 25% | 14% | 17% |
| Deferred grants for development of carbon capture and storage technology | 45% | 40% | 17% | 28% | 26% | 14% | 16% |
| Deferred or capped grants for solar energy programs | 32% | 56% | 10% | 22% | 33% | 23% | 12% |
| Scrapped Higher Education Capital Development Pool (for building new tertiary education centres) | 31% | 51% | 9% | 22% | 33% | 18% | 17% |
Respondents were more likely to agree with the Government decisions to scrap cash for clunkers (59% agree/29% disagree), scrap the Green Car innovation fund (43%/39%) and defer grants for development of carbon capture and storage technology (45%/40%).
However, they tended to disagree with the levy on taxpayers earning over $50,000 (50% disagree/44% agree), defer or cap grants for solar energy programs (56%/32%) and scrap Higher Education Capital Development Pool (51%/31%).
70% of Labor voters agreed with the levy and 26% disagreed while Coalition supporters disagreed 69% to 24% agreed. Older respondents were more likely to agree with the levy – 50% of those aged 45+ agreed and 43% disagreed. For those aged under 45, 38% agreed and 53% disagreed.