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  • Nov, 2011

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    Approval of Qantas Grounding Decision

    Q. Do you approve or disapprove of Qantas’ decision to ground all planes last weekend?

    Total Vote Labor Vote Lib/Nat Vote Greens Regular air travellers
    Total approve 35% 23% 53% 24% 47%
    Total disapprove 53% 66% 38% 63% 47%
    Strongly approve 13% 8% 21% 8% 20%
    Approve 22% 15% 32% 16% 27%
    Disapprove 24% 26% 20% 26% 17%
    Strongly disapprove 29% 40% 18% 37% 30%
    Don’t know 12% 12% 8% 13% 6%

    35% approved of Qantas’ decision to ground all planes and 53% disapproved.

    Regular air travellers (those who travel by air at least every few months) were split – 47% approved and 47% disapproved.

    Those most likely to disapprove were Labor voters (66%), Greens voters (63%), women (57%) and those on low income (60% of those earning less than $600 pw).

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  • Nov, 2011

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    Blame for Qantas Grounding

    Q. Who do you think was most to blame for the grounding of all Qantas planes last weekend – Qantas management or the workers?

    Total Vote Labor Vote Lib/Nat Vote Greens Regular air travellers
    Qantas management 41% 55% 25% 63% 42%
    Qantas workers 20% 11% 35% 8% 27%
    Both equally 31% 28% 35% 23% 26%
    Don’t know 8% 7% 5% 6% 4%

    41% think Qantas management were most to blame for the grounding, 20% blamed the Qantas workers and 31% think both were equally to blame.

    42% of regular air travellers blamed Qantas management and 27% blamed Qantas workers. Apart from Liberal/National voters, all groups were more likely to blame management over workers.

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  • Nov, 2011

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    Approval of Parties to Qantas Dispute

    Q. Did you approve or disapprove of the performance of each of the following in the Qantas dispute?

    Regular air travellers
    Total approve Total disapprove Strongly approve Approve Disapprove Strongly disapprove Don’t know Total approve Total disapprove
    Julia Gillard and the Labor Government 30% 49% 6% 24% 22% 27% 20% 30% 56%
    Tony Abbott and the opposition 27% 45% 5% 22% 21% 24% 28% 36% 45%
    Qantas management 27% 57% 6% 21% 28% 29% 16% 37% 56%
    Qantas workers 33% 49% 7% 26% 36% 13% 18% 35% 55%
    The Qantas CEO Alan Joyce 28% 58% 8% 20% 22% 36% 14% 37% 55%
    Union leaders 24% 56% 4% 20% 27% 29% 19% 26% 63%
    Fair Work Australia 55% 21% 13% 42% 15% 6% 23% 62% 25%

    Overall, respondents disapproved of the performance of all parties to the dispute except for Fair Work Australia, which was approved by 55%.

    More than half the respondents disapproved of the Qantas CEO Alan Joyce (58%), Qantas management (57%) and union leaders (56%).

    Regular air travellers were more likely to approve of Qantas management and CEO. However, more than half disapproved of all parties except for Tony Abbott and the opposition (45% disapprove) and Fair Work Australia (25%).

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  • Nov, 2011

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    Qantas’ Reputation

    Q. Which of the following is likely to cause the most damage to Qantas’ reputation?

    Total Vote Labor Vote Lib/Nat Vote Greens Regular air travellers
    Qantas’ decision to ground all planes 59% 72% 44% 77% 60%
    Industrial action by Qantas workers over pay and conditions 32% 20% 48% 18% 33%
    Don’t know 9% 8% 8% 5% 7%

    59% think that Qantas’ decision to ground all planes would cause the most damage to Qantas’ reputation and 32% think the workers’ industrial action would cause most damage.

    Regular air travellers had similar views to less frequent travellers – 60% believed that the plane grounding would cause most damage to Qantas’ reputation.

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  • Nov, 2011

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    Media Usage

    Q. Thinking about where you get your news, on an average day which of the following media would you use? (multiple response)

    Q. And which one is your main source of news?

    Total used Main source Total use (weekdays) Dec 10
    Daily newspaper 41% 13% 42%
    Commercial (free-to-air) TV news 60% 31% 64%
    ABC TV news 32% 8% 32%
    SBS TV news 15% 2% 12%
    Pay TV news 11% 3% 10%
    Commercial radio news 28% 5% 27%
    ABC radio news 18% 5% 17%
    Internet news sites – e.g. newspaper sites, ABC, etc 59% 30% 55%
    Internet blogs 8% * 6%
    None of them 2% 2% 5%

    The most used media for daily news were commercial TV news (60% use daily), internet news sites (59%) and daily newspapers (41%).

    Since this question was last asked in December last year, usage of internet news sites has increased a little (+4%) and commercial TV news decreased a little (-4%).

    The main sources of news were commercial TV news (31%) and internet news sites (30%).

    Commercial TV news was the main source of news for 38% of those aged 45-64, 36% of women and 44% of part-time workers.

    Internet news sites were the main source of news for 43% of those aged under 35 and 36% of full-time workers.

    Daily newspapers were the main source of news for 26% of those aged 65+.

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  • Nov, 2011

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    Pay to Access News Websites

    Q. Some newspapers in Australia now require readers to take out a subscription to view all their articles online. This means, while some news and opinion articles are free, readers will have to pay to access all content. How likely would you be to pay a subscription to access news websites?

    Total Aged

    18-34

    Aged

    35-54

    Aged 55+ Main source Internet news sites
    Total likely 9% 14% 6% 4% 8%
    Total not likely 88% 80% 89% 95% 88%
    Very likely 2% 2% 1% 2% 1%
    Somewhat likely 7% 12% 5% 2% 7%
    Not very likely 18% 18% 17% 19% 19%
    Not at all likely 70% 62% 72% 76% 69%
    Don’t know 4% 5% 5% 1% 5%

    Only 9% of respondents said they would be very or somewhat likely to pay to access news websites.

    Among those for whom news websites are their main source of news, only 8% said they would be likely to pay for access. Younger respondents were more likely to be willing to pay for access to news websites – 14% of those aged under 35.

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  • Oct, 2011

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    Federal politics – 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 = 1,899 respondents

    First preference/leaning to Election

    21 Aug 10

    4 weeks ago 2 weeks ago Last week This week
    Liberal 45% 45% 45% 44%
    National 3% 3% 3% 3%
    Total Lib/Nat 43.6% 48% 48% 48% 47%
    Labor 38.0% 33% 33% 32% 34%
    Greens 11.8% 11% 11% 11% 10%
    Other/Independent 6.6% 9% 8% 8% 9%
    2PP Election

    21 Aug 10

    4 weeks ago 2 weeks ago Last week This week
    Total Lib/Nat 49.9% 55% 55% 55% 55%
    Labor 50.1% 45% 45% 45% 45%

    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.

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  • Oct, 2011

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    Whether Government favours Businesses or Workers

    Q. Do you think the Federal Labor Government favours the interests of businesses or workers?

    Total Vote Labor Vote Lib/Nat Vote Greens
    Total favour businesses 28% 21% 31% 40%
    Total  favour workers 41% 40% 50% 28%
    Favour businesses a lot more than workers 13% 7% 16% 18%
    Favour businesses a little more than workers 15% 14% 15% 22%
    Favour workers a little more than businesses 24% 32% 21% 20%
    Favour workers a lot more than businesses 17% 8% 29% 8%
    Balance the interests of businesses and workers 14% 29% 5% 15%
    Don’t know 17% 10% 14% 17%

    41% think that the Federal Labor Government favours the interests of workers, 28% think they favour the interests of businesses and 14% think they balance their interests.

    Labor voters think the favour workers over business by 40% to 21% and 29% think they balance their interests.

    Liberal /National voters are much less likely to think they balance their interests – 50% think they favour workers’ interests and 31% think they favour businesses. Greens voters are more likely to think they favour the interests of businesses (40%) over workers (28%).

    The only substantial difference across demographic groups is that 20% of older respondents (aged 55+) think the Government balances the interests of businesses and workers.

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