I have never been comfortable with the term ‘spin doctor’; nor for that matter with ‘flak’, ‘PR guy’ or ‘message manager’ – in fact the failure of this industry to come up with a name for what we do strikes me as a fundamental failure in our professionalism.

Today these labels are even less appropriate – as the traditional notions of a centralised media collapse and more and more organisations and individuals have the tools to tart their own conversations, what eve pretentions we have to managing communication flows have totally disappeared.

We are entering the post-spin era, where the trick is to actually be authentic and open up real conversations, genuine debates and encourage genuine not staged engagement. Comments »

Q. Do you strongly approve, approve, disapprove or strongly disapprove of the job Malcolm Turnbull is doing as Opposition Leader?

29% of people surveyed approve of the job Malcolm Turnbull is doing as Opposition Leader and 50% disapprove.   Turnbull’s approval rating has increased slightly since we last asked this question (+2%), and his disapproval rating has seen a slight decrease (-3%).

Approval followed party lines – Coalition voters were more likely to approve (56%), while Labor voters were more likely to disapprove (70%).   28% of Coalition voters disapprove of the job Turnbull is doing as Opposition Leader.

Malcolm Turnbull’s net rating of -21% is a 5 point improvement on the September result and his best result since May.

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Q. Will the recent increase in official interest rates make you personally better or worse off financially?

41% of people think that the recent increase in official interest rates make them worse off personally, 15% think the interest rate increase will make them better off and 40% think it will make no difference to their personal financial situation.

People aged 55 years and over were more likely to indicate that the increase in official interest rates will make them better off (36%) while middle aged people were more likely to indicate that it will make them worse off (53% of 25 – 34 year olds, 54% of 35 – 44 year olds).

People in full-time work were more likely to indicate that the interest rate increase will make them worse off (55%).

Perception that the rise in interest rates will make people worse off increased with salary – 46% of people earning $600 – $1000 per week/46% of those earning $1000 – $1600 per week and 49% of those earning $1600+ per week think it will make them worse off.  55% of those earning $600 per week or less think the interest rate increase will make no difference to their personal financial situation.

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Q. Do you think the recent increase in official interest rates indicates that Australia’s economy is getting better or getting worse?

Just over half (53%) think the recent increase in official interest rates indicates that Australia’s economy is getting better, 12% think it is an indication that the economy is getting worse and 28% think it is not a sign that the economy is getting better or worse.

Labor voters were more likely to think the interest rate rise is a sign that the economy is getting better (61%), while Coalition voters were a little more likely than the average to think that it is a sign that the economy is getting worse (18%).  48% of Coalition voters think that the recent interest rate increase is a sign that the economy is getting better.

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Q. Which of the following statements most closely reflects your opinion on the cause of the recent increase in official interest rates?

When it comes to what the public perceive are the causes of the recent increase in official interest rates, 30% think that the Reserve Bank independently sets interest rates to avoid inflation and 18% think that interest rate rises are a correction to the historic low interest rates during the Global Financial Crisis.  15% think that the Federal Government has managed the economy well and the rate increase is a sign of a strong economy.

Only 9% think it is because the Government has managed the economy badly.

Coalition voters were more likely to think that the Reserve Bank independently setting interest rates to avoid inflation is the cause of the recent increase in interest rates (39%).  Labor voters were more likely to think the increase in interest rates is because the Federal Government has managed the economy well and the rate increase is a sign of a strong economy (28%).  Green voters were more likely to think the recent interest rate rises are just a correction to the historic low interest rates during the Global Financial Crisis (24%).

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Q. Over the next 12 months do you think economic conditions in Australia will get better, get worse or stay much the same?

Just over half (53%) think that over the next 12 months, economic conditions in Australia will get better, 23% think they will get worse and 21% think they will stay much the same.

The number of people that think economic conditions in Australia will get better over the next 12 months has decreased thirteen percentage points since we last asked this question in October this year, and the number that think economic conditions will get worse has increased eight percentage points.  However, the current results are very similar to the August survey results and considerably more positive than results recorded up to June.

Labor voters were more likely to think economic conditions will get better (65%), Coalition voters were more likely to think they will get worse (30%) and Green voters were more likely to think conditions will stay much the same (34%).

People earning $1600 per week or more were more likely to think economic conditions will get better (60%), while people earning $600 – $1000 per week were more likely to think they will get worse (32%).

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Q. Thinking about the way the Federal Government has handled the asylum seeker issue recently, do you think they have been too tough, too weak or have they taken about the right approach?

Just over half (52%) think that the Federal Government has been too weak in how it has handled the asylum seeker issue recently, 28% think the Government have taken the right approach and 9% think they have been too tough.

Males were more likely than females to think the Federal Government has been too weak (55% v 49%).

People aged 55 years and over were more likely than 18 – 24 year olds to think the Government’s action has been too weak (64% v 32%).

Labor voters were more likely to think the Federal Government has taken about the right approach (43%), Coalition voters were more likely to think the Government has been too weak (76%) and Green voters were more likely to think the Government’s approach has been too tough (33%).

43% of Labor voters think the Federal Government has been too weak in its handling of the asylum seeker issue recently.

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Q. Which party do you think would be best at handling the issue of asylum seekers?

27% of people surveyed think Liberal is the best party at handling the issue of asylum seekers, 23% think Labor is and 37% think there is no difference in how the two major parties would handle the issue.

Attitudes followed party lines – Coalition voters were more likely to prefer Liberal (65%) and Labor voters more likely to prefer Labor (65%).

54% of Green, 38% of Labor voters and 24% of Coalition voters think there is no difference between how Liberal or Labor would handle the issue of asylum seekers.

People aged 55 years and over were more likely to think Liberal would be best (36% Liberal to 22% Labor), while people aged under 35 were more likely to think Labor would be best at handling the issue of asylum seekers (27% Labor to 20% Liberal).

Males were more likely to think Liberal would be the party best to handle the issue (31%), while females were more likely to think there is no difference (40%).

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