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  • Jun, 2013

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    Government decisions

    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

    Sep 12 good

    Sep 12 bad

    Expanding dental health services for people on low incomes

    73%

    8%

    28%

    45%

    15%

    4%

    4%

    5%

    77%

    5%

    Increasing the tax free threshold from $6,000 to $18,200

    72%

    8%

    34%

    38%

    15%

    5%

    3%

    5%

    75%

    4%

    Increasing the age pension

    67%

    14%

    27%

    40%

    16%

    10%

    4%

    4%

    70%

    11%

    Protecting large areas of Australia’s marine environment in a network of marine reserves

    66%

    10%

    27%

    39%

    19%

    6%

    4%

    5%

    67%

    8%

    Introducing the National Disability Insurance Scheme

    63%

    9%

    26%

    37%

    20%

    5%

    4%

    8%

    58%

    5%

    Increasing superannuation from 9% to 12%

    62%

    14%

    24%

    38%

    19%

    10%

    4%

    5%

    68%

    9%

    Stimulus spending to tackle the Global Financial Crisis (GFC)

    50%

    26%

    21%

    29%

    19%

    17%

    9%

    5%

    54%

    22%

    Introducing a tax on large profits of mining companies

    49%

    27%

    21%

    28%

    20%

    15%

    12%

    5%

    49%

    25%

    Building the NBN (National Broadband Network)

    48%

    28%

    22%

    26%

    18%

    15%

    13%

    6%

    43%

    28%

    Paid parental leave

    48%

    22%

    14%

    34%

    24%

    13%

    9%

    5%

    52%

    20%

    Spending on new school buildings during the GFC

    47%

    26%

    12%

    35%

    20%

    15%

    11%

    6%

    53%

    22%

    Implementing the recommendations of the Gonski report to increase education funding

    46%

    22%

    17%

    29%

    23%

    12%

    10%

    9%

    54%

    8%

    Abolished WorkChoices

    42%

    27%

    23%

    19%

    22%

    17%

    10%

    10%

    42%

    27%

    Introducing a carbon tax to tackle climate change

    32%

    48%

    14%

    18%

    16%

    18%

    30%

    4%

    28%

    51%

    The two most popular decisions of the Labor Government are ‘expanding dental health services for people on low incomes’ (73% total good) and ‘increasing the tax free threshold from $6,000 to $18,000 (72% total good).  The least popular decisions were ‘Implementing the recommendations of the Gonski report (46% total good), ‘Abolished WorkChoices’ (42% total good) and ‘introducing a carbon tax to tackle climate change’ (32% total good).

    The only issue which received a net negative response was ‘introducing a carbon tax to tackle climate change’, where 48% of respondents believed it to be bad for Australia.

    Since this question was previously asked last September, perceptions of most decisions have become a little more negative – with the exceptions of the “carbon tax” which shifted from 28% to 32% ‘good’, the ‘NDIS’ which shifted from 58% to 63% ‘good’ and building the NBN which shifted from 43% to 48% ‘good’.

    The largest negative shifts were for the ‘Gonski recommendations’ (down 8% to 46%), increasing super (down 6% to 62%) and spending on schools during the GFC (down 6% to 47%).

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