Selling Government-owned assets
Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the Treasurer Joe Hockey’s proposal that State Governments sell their Government-owned assets (e.g. ports, rail, roads) to fund construction of new infrastructure?
Total |
|
Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
Vote other/ Indep-endent |
|
Total approve |
25% |
|
10% |
44% |
17% |
23% |
Total disapprove |
58% |
|
80% |
41% |
63% |
60% |
Strongly approve |
7% |
3% |
11% |
4% |
8% |
|
Approve |
18% |
7% |
33% |
13% |
15% |
|
Disapprove |
27% |
25% |
31% |
28% |
22% |
|
Strongly disapprove |
31% |
55% |
10% |
35% |
38% |
|
Don’t know |
18% |
11% |
16% |
19% |
16% |
58% disapprove of the Treasurer Joe Hockey’s proposal that State Governments sell their Government-owned to fund construction of new infrastructure and 25% approve.
Labor voters (80%) and Greens voters (63%) strongly disapprove but Liberal/National voters are divided with 44% approve/41% disapprove.
Services better run by Government or Private Sector
Q. Which of the following are better run by the private sector and which are better run by Government?
11 Mar 2013 |
31 Jan 2011 |
|||||
Better run by private sector |
Better run by Government |
Don’t know |
Better run by private sector |
Better run by Government |
Don’t know |
|
Electricity |
25% |
62% |
13% |
22% |
61% |
17% |
Water |
19% |
69% |
12% |
15% |
70% |
16% |
Trains, buses and ferries |
25% |
64% |
11% |
19% |
68% |
13% |
Motorways |
23% |
66% |
11% |
17% |
70% |
13% |
Community services such as child protection |
14% |
75% |
11% |
14% |
71% |
15% |
Telecommunications (including broadband services) |
45% |
44% |
11% |
na |
na |
na |
Hospitals and health services |
19% |
71% |
10% |
na |
na |
na |
Schools |
21% |
69% |
10% |
na |
na |
na |
Prisons |
17% |
73% |
11% |
10% |
76% |
15% |
Universities |
27% |
61% |
12% |
20% |
64% |
16% |
Ports |
22% |
60% |
19% |
na |
na |
na |
Most services listed were clearly thought to be better run by Government than the private sector.
The only exception was telecommunications where respondents were split 45% private sector, 44% Government.
The areas most preferred to be run by Government were – community services (75%), prisons (73%), hospitals and health services (71%), schools (69%) and water (69%).
Compared to the results when this question was asked in January 2011, preference for the private sector running services has increased a little – +6% for trains, buses and ferries and motorways and +7% for prisons and universities.

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