10 September 2012, 100912, age pension, ALP, Carbon Tax, decisions, GFC, Gonski, low incomes, marine reserves, NBN, ndis, tax free threshold
Q. Thinking about the decisions the Labor Government has made over the last few years, do you think the following decisions were good or bad for Australia?
|
|
Total good |
Total bad |
Very good |
Good |
Neither good nor bad |
Bad |
Very bad |
Don’t know |
| Expanding dental health services for people on low incomes |
77% |
5% |
33% |
44% |
14% |
2% |
3% |
5% |
| Increasing the tax free threshold from $6,000 to $18,200 |
75% |
4% |
36% |
39% |
16% |
3% |
1% |
5% |
| Increasing the age pension |
70% |
11% |
30% |
40% |
13% |
7% |
4% |
6% |
| Increasing superannuation from 9% to 12% |
68% |
9% |
27% |
41% |
16% |
6% |
3% |
6% |
| Protecting large areas of Australia’s marine environment in a network of marine reserves |
67% |
8% |
28% |
39% |
20% |
5% |
3% |
7% |
| Introducing the National Disability Insurance Scheme |
58% |
5% |
21% |
37% |
23% |
3% |
2% |
14% |
| Implementing the recommendations of the Gonski report to increase education funding |
54% |
8% |
20% |
34% |
25% |
5% |
3% |
13% |
| Stimulus spending to tackle the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) |
54% |
22% |
22% |
32% |
18% |
14% |
8% |
8% |
| Spending on new school buildings during the GFC |
53% |
22% |
15% |
38% |
18% |
12% |
10% |
6% |
| Paid parental leave |
52% |
20% |
17% |
35% |
23% |
12% |
8% |
5% |
| Introducing a tax on large profits of mining companies |
49% |
25% |
24% |
25% |
17% |
13% |
12% |
8% |
| Implementing the recommendations of the expert committee on asylum seekers including offshore processing |
45% |
15% |
15% |
30% |
28% |
8% |
7% |
12% |
| Building the NBN (National Broadband Network) |
43% |
28% |
17% |
26% |
22% |
14% |
14% |
7% |
| Abolished WorkChoices |
42% |
27% |
23% |
19% |
19% |
17% |
10% |
12% |
| Introducing a carbon tax to tackle climate change |
28% |
51% |
14% |
14% |
15% |
16% |
35% |
7% |
The two most popular decisions of the Labor Government are ‘expanding dental health services for people on low incomes’ (77% total good) and ‘increasing the tax free threshold from $6,000 to $18,000 (75% total good). The least popular decisions were ‘Building the NBN’ (43% total good), ‘Abolished WorkChoices’ (42% total good) and ‘introducing a carbon tax to tackle climate change’ (28% total good).
Of the fifteen decisions put to respondents, the majority of respondents believed that 10 of the 15 decisions were good for Australia. For the remaining 5 decisions, a larger portion of respondents generally regarded the decision to be good for Australia except for ‘introducing a carbon tax to tackle climate change’, where the majority of respondents (51%) believed it to be bad for Australia.
Female respondents were more likely to endorse the dental health reforms (80% total good) compared with male respondents (74% total good).
Increasing the age pension was most strongly supported by respondents aged 65+ (77% total good).
Introducing paid parental leave was more popular with female respondents (57% total good), compared with male respondents (46% total good). Looking at this decision by age, it was most popular amongst respondents aged 25-34 (62%) and 35-44 (62%) whereas respondents aged 65+ were the most likely to regard the decision as a bad one (36% total bad).
Implementing the recommendations of the expert committee on asylum seekers including offshore processing proved to be a very popular decision amongst respondents aged 65+ (65% total good), whereas respondents aged 25-34 were the most likely to regard it as a bad decision (43% total bad).
Female respondents were more likely to regard ‘protecting large areas of Australia’s marine environment’ as a good decision (72% total good) compared with male respondents (60% total good).