climate change, Climate Change action, EMC, ER, Essential Report, Greens, Labor, Liberal, Nationals, Polling, polls
Q. Do you think the Government needs to take action on climate change as soon as possible, should they wait a few years before taking action or don’t they need to take any action at all?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | |
| Need to take action as soon as possible | 47% | 60% | 33% | 85% |
| Can wait a few years before taking action | 24% | 19% | 33% | 8% |
| Don’t need to take any action | 19% | 9% | 29% | 3% |
| Don’t know | 11% | 12% | 5% | 4% |
Nearly half of respondents (47%) believe that the Government needs to take action on climate change as soon as possible, 24% think they can wait and 19% think they do not need to take any action.
52% of respondents aged under 35 think they need to take action as soon as possible compared to 44% of those aged 55+.
carbon pollution, Carbon Tax, Carbon Tax Compensation, compensating households, EMC, ER, Essential Report, Polling, polls
Q. It is expected that a tax on carbon pollution will increase the cost of electricity. Which of the following do you think should receive compensation for this increased cost?
| Should receive compensation | Should not receive compensation | Don’t know | |
| Low income households | 84% | 8% | 8% |
| Farmers | 74% | 13% | 13% |
| Small business owners | 70% | 14% | 15% |
| All households | 70% | 16% | 14% |
| Trade exposed industries | 28% | 44% | 29% |
| Manufacturing industries | 26% | 51% | 23% |
| The aluminium industry | 18% | 56% | 26% |
| Power companies | 15% | 68% | 17% |
There was strong majority support for compensating households (especially low income households), farmers and small businesses.
Support for compensating companies and industries was relatively low. A little over one quarter think trade exposed and manufacturing industries should be compensated and only 15% think power companies should be compensated.
Although all voter groups showed similar support for compensating low income families, Coalition voters showed stronger support for compensation for all other groups – for example, 78% of Coalition voters thought all households should be compensated compared to 65% of Labor voters and 51% of Greens voters.
EMC, ER, Essential Report, Greens, Labor, Liberal, Nationals, opposition, Opposition leader, Polling, polls, tony abbott
Q. Which of the following statements is closest to your view about the performance of Tony Abbott as Opposition leader?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | |
| Tony Abbott is performing the role of Opposition leader well and is keeping the Government accountable | 41% | 11% | 79% | 7% |
| Tony Abbott is just opposing everything and is obstructing the work of the Government | 43% | 78% | 12% | 82% |
| Don’t know | 16% | 11% | 9% | 12% |
41% think that Tony Abbott is performing the role of Opposition leader well and is keeping the Government accountable and 43% think he is just opposing everything and is obstructing the work of the Government.
Views are strongly correlated with voting intention – 79% of Coalition voters think he is performing the role of Opposition leader well, while 78% of Labor voters and 82% of Greens voters think he is just opposing everything.
EMC, ER, Essential Report, Federal Government, Greens, Independents, Labor, Liberal, Minority Government, Parliament, Polling, polls, power in Parliament
Q. Do you think the independents and Greens holding the balance of power in Parliament has been good or bad for Australia?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | |
| Total good | 27% | 33% | 12% | 83% |
| Total bad | 41% | 25% | 66% | 2% |
| Very good | 7% | 8% | 1% | 34% |
| Good | 20% | 25% | 11% | 49% |
| Neither good nor bad | 33% | 41% | 22% | 15% |
| Bad | 22% | 18% | 29% | 2% |
| Very bad | 19% | 7% | 37% | – |
27% think that the independents and Greens holding the balance of power in Parliament has been good for Australia and 41% think it has been bad.
Greens voters overwhelmingly think it has been good (83%) while two-thirds of Coalition voters think it has been bad. Labor voters are somewhat split – 33% good/25% bad/41% neither. Older respondents were more likely to think it was bad – those aged under 35 split 32% good/29% bad while those aged 55+ split 21% good/52% bad.
Australia, Australian society, EMC, ER, Essential Media, Essential Report, Greens, Islam, Labor, Liberal, multiculturalism, Muslim, Muslims, Polling, polls, Religion, religious concern, religious issues, voting
Q. In your view, should the Australian government exclude Muslims from our migrant intake?
(Question commissioned by Network Ten)
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Men | Women | Aged 18-34 | Aged 35-44 | Aged 55+ | |
| Yes | 25% | 21% | 33% | 8% | 26% | 25% | 19% | 26% | 31% |
| No | 55% | 62% | 49% | 83% | 55% | 54% | 56% | 57% | 49% |
| Don’t know/Refused | 20% | 17% | 18% | 8% | 19% | 21% | 25% | 17% | 20% |
25% of respondents believed that the Australian government should exclude Muslims from our migrant intake and 55% disagreed. Those most likely to think Muslims should be excluded from our migration intake were Liberal/National voters (33%) and people aged 55+ (31%).
Download the Network Ten Essential Question of the Week (1.1 MB pdf)
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 =1,964
| First preference/leaning to | Election
21 Aug 10 |
4 weeks ago | 2 weeks ago | Last week | This week |
| Liberal | 42% | 41% | 40% | 42% | |
| National | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | |
| Total Lib/Nat | 43.6 | 45% | 44% | 43% | 45% |
| Labor | 38.0 | 37% | 40% | 39% | 37% |
| Greens | 11.8 | 11% | 10% | 11% | 10% |
| Other/Independent | 6.6 | 7% | 6% | 7% | 7% |
| 2PP | Election
21 Aug 10 |
4 weeks ago | 2 weeks ago | Last week | This week |
| Total Lib/Nat | 49.9% | 51% | 50% | 49% | 52% |
| Labor | 50.1% | 49% | 50% | 51% | 48% |
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.
Andrew Robb, EMC, ER, Essential Media, Essential Report, Joe Hockey, Julie Bishop, Liberal Party, Liberal party Leadership, malcolm turnbull, Polling, polls, tony abbott
Q. Which of the following do you think would make the best leader of the Liberal Party?
| 27 Sep 10 | 28 February 2011 | ||||
| Total | Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | |
| Tony Abbott | 26% | 24% | 9% | 45% | 1% |
| Malcolm Turnbull | 20% | 18% | 24% | 16% | 29% |
| Joe Hockey | 15% | 16% | 18% | 17% | 17% |
| Julie Bishop | 5% | 4% | 6% | 2% | 4% |
| Andrew Robb | na | 1% | 1% | 1% | 2% |
| Someone else | na | 14% | 18% | 8% | 27% |
| Don’t know | 33% | 22% | 23% | 10% | 20% |
24% of respondents believed that Tony Abbott is the best leader of the Liberal Party, 18% prefer Malcolm Turnbull and 16% Joe Hockey.
Tony Abbott is preferred by 45% of Liberal/National voters while Malcolm Turnbull is preferred by Labor (24%) and Greens voters (29%).
Tony Abbott is more preferred by men (30%) – women are split between Tony Abbott (19%) and Joe Hockey (19%). 23% of men prefer Malcolm Turnbull compared to 14% of women.
These figures are little changed since the question was last asked in September 2010.
Australia, Australian society, EMC, ER, Essential Media, Essential Report, Greens, Labor, Liberal, multiculturalism, Polling, polls, voting
Q. Overall, has multiculturalism (that is, the acceptance of people from different countries, cultures and religions) made a positive or negative contribution to Australian society?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | |
| Total positive | 57% | 65% | 54% | 75% |
| Total negative | 29% | 24% | 36% | 12% |
| Very positive | 15% | 20% | 10% | 34% |
| Positive | 42% | 45% | 44% | 41% |
| Negative | 18% | 16% | 21% | 9% |
| Very negative | 11% | 8% | 15% | 9% |
| Made no difference | 6% | 6% | 5% | 3% |
| Don’t know | 8% | 4% | 4% | 4% |
57% believe that multiculturalism has made a positive contribution to Australian society and 29% believe the contribution has been negative. A majority of all party voter groups believe the contribution has been positive.
Older respondents tend to have a more negative view – those aged 55+ were split 48% positive/45% negative while those aged under 35 were 65% positive and 18% negative.