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Support for Government reactions to new clusters

May 12, 2020

Q. To what extent do you support or oppose the following actions the government could take if future clusters of new infections appear?

	TOTAL: Support	TOTAL: Oppose	Strongly support	Somewhat support	Neither support, nor oppose	Somewhat oppose	Strongly oppose
Restrict any travel to or from geographic areas with infection clusters	77%	9%	48%	29%	14%	5%	4%
Increase fines for people found to be breaching the existing restrictions	67%	14%	37%	30%	19%	8%	6%
Return to restrictions on physical distance, movement and work types nation-wide	63%	14%	31%	33%	22%	9%	5%
Make downloading the COVIDSafe app mandatory	38%	38%	16%	21%	24%	17%	22%

TOTAL: Support		Age Group			Federal Voting Intention
TOTAL: Support	Total	18-34	35-54	55+	Labor	Coalition	Greens	TOTAL: Other
Restrict any travel to or from geographic areas with infection clusters	77%	64%	74%	90%	80%	83%	65%	70%
Increase fines for people found to be breaching the existing restrictions	67%	60%	64%	76%	71%	73%	52%	53%
Return to restrictions on physical distance, movement and work types nation-wide	63%	55%	62%	72%	67%	67%	55%	53%
Make downloading the COVIDSafe app mandatory	38%	38%	36%	39%	35%	47%	27%	26%
Base (n)	1,067	341	341	385	306	418	86	143

Three-quarters of participants (77%) support restricting any travel to or from geographic areas with infection clusters, another 67% support increasing fines for people found to be breaching the existing restrictions and 63% support returning to restrictions on physical distance, movement and work types nation-wide.
Participants over 55 are more likely to support geographic restrictions around infection clusters (90%), increasing fines (76%) and returning to previous restrictions (72%), than those aged 18-34 (64%, 60% and 55% respectively).
Labor and Coalition voters are more in favour of the government implementing these measures (aside from making downloading the COVIDSafe app mandatory), than Greens or other party voters.
Participants are polarised in their support of mandatory downloading the COVIDSafe app if new clusters appear (38% support, 38% oppose) – Coalition voters are most likely to support this measure (47%) than all other voters (31%).

Read Essential's ongoing research on the public response to Covid-19.

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Essential Report

Labor

51.5%-0.5

Coalition

48.5%+0.5