Essential Report
Most important environmental problem
Q. Which of these do you think is the most important environmental problem facing Australia today?
Q. And which would you say is the second most important?
Most important | Second most important | Total | |
Water supply | 33% | 20% | 53% |
The health of rivers and waterways | 17% | 21% | 38% |
Pollution | 14% | 17% | 31% |
Climate change | 16% | 14% | 30% |
Loss of native habitat | 8% | 11% | 19% |
Logging of native forests | 4% | 8% | 12% |
Greenhouse gases | 2% | 6% | 8% |
Don’t know | 6% | 2% | 6% |
Water supply (53%) and the health of rivers and waterways (38%) were considered the most important environmental problems facing Australia today.
Younger respondents were more likely to nominate climate change (36% of aged under 45) while 47% of those aged 45+ nominated the health of rivers and waterways. Water supply was the top issue for all segments except Green voters who nominated climate change as their most important issue (51%).

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