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.
Same party in Government at State and Federal levels
Q. Do you think it is better to have the same party in Government at both State and Federal levels or do you think it is better to have different parties in Government at State and Federal levels?
|
Total |
|
Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
Vote other |
|
Total Nov 13 |
|
| Same party in Government |
26% |
26% |
38% |
10% |
11% |
26% |
||
| Different parties in Government |
24% |
27% |
17% |
41% |
37% |
22% |
||
| Makes no difference |
36% |
36% |
34% |
33% |
40% |
40% |
||
| Don’t know |
13% |
11% |
11% |
15% |
12% |
12% |
36% think it doesn’t make any difference whether the parties in Government at State and Federal levels are different or the same. 26% think it is better if they are the same and 24% think it would be better if they were different. These figures have changed little since this question was asked in November.
Labor voters were a little more likely to favour different parties while Liberal/National voters were more likely to favour having the same party in power at both levels.
Responsibility for gas/electricity prices
Q. Who do you think is mainly responsible for electricity and gas prices?
|
Total |
Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
|
| The Federal Government |
27% |
17% |
40% |
15% |
| The State Government |
16% |
18% |
14% |
18% |
| The power companies |
45% |
54% |
37% |
56% |
| Don’t know |
13% |
11% |
9% |
11% |
45% believe that power companies are mainly responsible for electricity and gas prices, 27% think the Federal Government is mainly responsible and 16% State Governments.
40% of Liberal/National voters think the Federal Government is mainly responsible. Answers were similar across the major states – NSW, Victoria, Queensland.
Responsibility for Power Prices
Q. Who do you think is mainly responsible for electricity and gas prices?
|
Total |
Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
Increased a lot |
Increased a moderate amount |
Increased a little |
Stayed the same or decreased |
|
| The Federal Government |
28% |
16% |
40% |
18% |
40% |
22% |
19% |
22% |
| The State Government |
23% |
27% |
21% |
28% |
23% |
28% |
21% |
18% |
| The power companies |
37% |
50% |
28% |
42% |
32% |
42% |
44% |
38% |
| Don’t know |
12% |
7% |
10% |
12% |
6% |
9% |
17% |
21% |
37% think the power companies are mainly responsible for electricity and gas prices, 28% think the Federal Government is mainly responsible and 23% think the State Governments are mainly responsible.
Those who think power prices have increased a lot are more likely to think the Federal Government is mainly responsible (40%), while those who think prices have increased a moderate amount, a little or not at all think the power companies are mainly responsible.
50% of Labor voters think the power companies are mainly responsible and 40% of Liberal/National voters think the Federal Government is mainly responsible.
State Government – Co-operate or Compete
Q. When it comes to business expansion and investment in Australia, do you think that State Governments should co-operate with each other to attract business and investment or should they compete for business and investment by offering lower taxes and less regulation?
|
|
Total |
Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
| Should co-operate |
67% |
74% |
64% |
78% |
| Should compete |
17% |
16% |
23% |
5% |
| Don’t know |
15% |
10% |
14% |
16% |
67% believe that State Governments should co-operate with each other to attract business and investment and 17% think they should compete for business and investment by offering lower taxes and less regulation.
23% of Liberal/National voters, 21% of men and 21% of NSW respondents think they should compete. Those most likely to think they should co-operate were Greens voters (78%), Labor voters (74%) and Queensland respondents (73%).
Government Responsibilities
Q. Which of the following should be mainly the responsibility of the Federal Government and which should be mainly the responsibility of the State Governments – or should they have equal responsibility?
|
Mainly Federal |
Mainly State |
Both equally |
Don’t know |
|
| Constructing new roads and highways |
20% |
27% |
49% |
4% |
| Investing in public transport |
9% |
57% |
31% |
3% |
| Improving the health system |
46% |
8% |
42% |
3% |
| Improving the education system |
40% |
12% |
44% |
4% |
| Managing mining projects and mining profits |
45% |
17% |
30% |
7% |
| Investing in regional areas |
15% |
41% |
40% |
4% |
| Managing the environment |
35% |
9% |
52% |
4% |
| Managing our water resources |
26% |
21% |
49% |
4% |
| Addressing climate change |
42% |
3% |
47% |
8% |
| Industrial relations issues |
37% |
15% |
42% |
5% |
Issues which were considered mainly Federal responsibilities were the health system, mining projects/profits, climate change and education.
Public transport and regional investment were considered to be more the responsibilities of the State Governments.
The environment, managing water resources and constructing new roads and highways were more likely to be considered a shared responsibility.
Essential Report
Two Party Preferred: 14 May 2019
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