The Essential Report Archive Read the latest report

  • May, 2015

    ,

    Approval of Tony Abbott

    Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the job Tony Abbott is doing as Prime Minister? 

      Total   Vote Lab Vote Lib/
    Nat
    Vote Grn Vote Oth.   June 2014 Sep 2014 Dec 2014 Jan 2015 Feb 2015 Mar 2015 Apr 2015
    Total approve 36% 7% 78% 1% 35%   35% 35% 32% 37% 29% 31% 33%
    Total disapprove 54% 87% 14% 83% 58%   58% 52% 55% 53% 62% 56% 58%
    Strongly approve 10% 1% 25% 3% 5% 10% 9% 8% 9% 7% 7% 7%
    Approve 26% 6% 53% 8% 30% 25% 26% 24% 28% 22% 24% 26%
    Disapprove 25% 32% 12% 43% 23% 18% 22% 22% 23% 26% 22% 28%
    Strongly disapprove 29% 55% 2% 40% 25% 40% 30% 33% 30% 36% 34% 30%
    Don’t know 11% 6% 8% 6% 17% 7% 13% 12% 10% 9% 12% 9%

    36% of respondents approve of the job Tony Abbott is doing as Prime Minister – up 3% since the last time this question was asked in April – and 54% disapprove of the job Tony Abbott is doing (down 4%). This represents a 7-point change in his net rating from -25 to -18.

    78% (up 3%) of Liberal/National voters approve of Tony Abbott’s performance, with 14% (down 4%) disapproving. 87% of Labor voters and 83% of Greens voters disapprove of Tony Abbott’s performance.

    By gender men were 40% approve/54% disapprove and women 32% approve/53% disapprove.

  • Dec, 2014

    ,

    Tony Abbott leader at next election

    Q. Do you think Tony Abbott is likely or unlikely to still be the leader of the Liberal Party at the next election?

     

    Total

     

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

    Vote other

    Likely

    29%

    16%

    50%

    19%

    29%

    Unlikely

    51%

    72%

    29%

    68%

    60%

    Don’t know

    20%

    12%

    21%

    13%

    11%

    51% think that Tony Abbott is unlikely to still be leader of the Liberal Party at the next election and 29% think it is likely.

    72% of Labor voters and 68% of Greens voters think it is unlikely and 50% of Liberal/National voters think it is likely he will still be leader.

  • Dec, 2014

    , ,

    Better Prime Minister

    Q. Who do you think would make the better Prime Minister out of Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten?

     

    Total

     

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

    Vote Other

     

    Oct 2013

    Mar 2014

    June 2014

    Sep 2014

    Oct 2014

    Nov 2014

    Tony Abbott

    31%

    4%

    74%

    3%

    22%

    41%

    39%

    36%

    35%

    38%

    36%

    Bill Shorten

    36%

    73%

    6%

    62%

    24%

    22%

    33%

    40%

    36%

    32%

    34%

    Don’t know

    33%

    23%

    20%

    34%

    54%

    37%

    28%

    24%

    30%

    30%

    29%

    31% (down 5% since November) of respondents think Tony Abbott would make the better Prime Minister and 36% (up 2%) think Bill Shorten would make the better Prime Minister.

    35% of men prefer Tony Abbott and 35% prefer Bill Shorten – and women prefer Bill Shorten 37% to 27%.

  • Dec, 2014

    , , , ,

    Performance of politicians

     Q. How would you rate the performance of the following people over the last 12 months?

     

    Total good

    Total poor

    Net rating

     

    Very good

    Good

    Neither good nor poor

    Poor

    Very poor

    Don’t know

    Tony Abbott – Prime Minister

    27%

    49%

    -22

    8%

    19%

    17%

    16%

    33%

    7%

    Bill Shorten – Opposition leader

    26%

    31%

    -5

    7%

    19%

    30%

    17%

    14%

    13%

    Joe Hockey – Treasurer

    22%

    46%

    -24

    5%

    17%

    23%

    16%

    30%

    10%

    Clive Palmer – leader of PUP

    9%

    59%

    -50

    2%

    7%

    22%

    21%

    38%

    11%

    Christine Milne – leader of the Greens

    16%

    39%

    -23

    4%

    12%

    27%

    14%

    25%

    19%

    Julie Bishop – Foreign Minister

    47%

    19%

    +28

    23%

    24%

    22%

    9%

    10%

    12%

    The Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop was the only politician measured with a positive rating – 47% rated her performance as good and 19% poor. Bill Shorten was the best of the others with a net rating of -5. Clive Palmer’s performance was rated very poorly (-50) while Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey and Christine Milne received similar net ratings.

    Tony Abbott received a net rating of +50 from Liberal/National voters, Bill Shorten scored +42 with Labor voters and Christine Milne scored +36 with Greens voters.

    Among Liberal/National voters Julie Bishop’s net rating was +61 and Joe Hockey’s +35.

  • Dec, 2014

    ,

    Leader Attributes – Tony Abbott

    Q. Which of the following describe your opinion of the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott?

     

    2 Sep 13

    (as Opposition leader)

    29 Oct 13

    27 May 14

     

    Total

    2 Dec

    Change

    Out of touch with ordinary people

    52%

    51%

    67%

    66%

    -1

    Hard working

    71%

    67%

    57%

    62%

    +5

    Arrogant

    52%

    54%

    63%

    61%

    -2

    Narrow-minded

    55%

    54%

    61%

    61%

    Superficial

    48%

    49%

    57%

    54%

    -3

    Intolerant

    47%

    49%

    55%

    53%

    -2

    Erratic

    43%

    43%

    51%

    52%

    +1

    Intelligent

    63%

    62%

    52%

    51%

    -1

    Aggressive

    47%

    46%

    52%

    49%

    -3

    A capable leader

    46%

    52%

    41%

    43%

    +2

    Good in a crisis

    39%

    45%

    35%

    42%

    +7

    Understands the problems facing Australia

    46%

    51%

    42%

    40%

    -2

    More honest than most politicians

    34%

    39%

    30%

    30%

    Trustworthy

    38%

    40%

    29%

    30%

    +1

    Visionary

    35%

    33%

    31%

    27%

    -4

    Tony Abbott’s key attributes were out of touch with ordinary people (66%), hard working (62%), arrogant (61%) and narrow-minded (61%).

    Since May, the largest shifts have been for good in a crisis (+7), hard working (+5) ands visionary (-4).

  • Nov, 2014

    , ,

    Better Prime Minister

    Q. Who do you think would make the better Prime Minister out of Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten?

     

    Total

     

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/
    Nat

    Vote Greens

    Vote Other

     

    Oct 13

    Mar 14

    June 14

    July 14

    Aug 14

    Sep 14

    Oct 14

    Tony Abbott

    36%

    8%

    82%

    4%

    28%

    41%

    39%

    36%

    34%

    37%

    35%

    38%

    Bill Shorten

    34%

    67%

    3%

    61%

    29%

    22%

    33%

    40%

    37%

    36%

    36%

    32%

    Don’t know

    29%

    25%

    15%

    36%

    43%

    37%

    28%

    24%

    29%

    27%

    30%

    30%

    36% (down 2% since October) of respondents think Tony Abbott would make the better Prime Minister and 34% (up 2%) think Bill Shorten would make the better Prime Minister.

    Men prefer Tony Abbott 40% to 33% and women prefer Bill Shorten 36% to 32%.

  • Oct, 2014

    , ,

    Trust in the Government’s handling of international relations

    Q. How much trust do you have in Tony Abbott and the Liberal Government to handle Australia’s international relations? 

     

     Total

     

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

    Vote other

     

    Nov 2013

    Jun 2014

    Total a lot/some

    40%

    16%

    82%

    19%

    26%

    41%

    35%

    Total little/no trust

    53%

    81%

    15%

    80%

    71%

    53%

    59%

    A lot of trust

    17%

    1%

    44%

    2%

    8%

    20%

    17%

    Some trust

    23%

    15%

    38%

    17%

    18%

    21%

    18%

    A little trust

    18%

    24%

    13%

    10%

    20%

    18%

    16%

    No trust

    35%

    57%

    2%

    70%

    51%

    35%

    43%

    Don’t know

    6%

    3%

    3%

    1%

    2%

    7%

    5%

    17% of people have “a lot of trust” in Tony Abbott and the Liberal Government to handle Australia’s international relations.

    35% have no trust.

    Labor (57%) and Greens (70%) voters were far more likely to have ‘no trust’. Liberal/National voters were far less likely (2%) to have no trust. 44% of Liberal/National voters have “a lot of trust”.

    Since this question was asked in June, those saying they have a lot or some trust has increased by 5% and those saying they have no trust decreased by 6% – a similar position to the poll in November last year.

  • Oct, 2014

    ,

    Tony Abbott representing Australia

    Q. When you think of Tony Abbott representing Australia at international conferences and meetings, how confident are you that he will do a good job in representing Australia to the international community? 

     

     Total

     

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

    Vote other

     

    Jun 2014

    Total very/somewhat confident

    49%

    23%

    91%

    16%

    34%

    45%

    Very confident

    17%

    2%

    42%

    2%

    8%

    18%

    Somewhat confident

    32%

    21%

    49%

    14%

    26%

    27%

    Not at all confident

    47%

    74%

    9%

    82%

    63%

    50%

    Don’t know

    4%

    3%

    1%

    2%

    3%

    5%

    49% (up 4% since June) say they are very or somewhat confident that Tony Abbott will do a good job in representing Australia to the international community and 47% (down 3%) say they are not at all confident.

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