The Essential Report Archive Read the latest report

  • Mar, 2012

    , , , , , , , ,

    Opinion of Unions

    Q. Overall, do you think unions have been good or bad for Australian working people? 

     

    Total

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

    Work full time

    Work part time

    Total good

    48%

    72%

    31%

    70%

    48%

    48%

    Total bad

    17%

    6%

    31%

    3%

    18%

    18%

    Very good

    12%

    26%

    4%

    21%

    13%

    10%

    Good

    36%

    46%

    27%

    49%

    35%

    38%

    Neither good nor bad

    28%

    19%

    34%

    16%

    28%

    29%

    Bad

    11%

    4%

    19%

    3%

    12%

    10%

    Very bad

    6%

    2%

    12%

    6%

    8%

    Don’t know

    6%

    3%

    4%

    10%

    6%

    5%

    48% think that unions have been good for Australian working people, 17% think they have been bad, and 28% think they have been neither good nor bad.

    72% of Labor voters and 70% of Greens voters think they have been good and Liberal/National voters are split 31% good/31% bad.

    There was no difference between the views of workers and non-workers and very little difference be age, gender or income.

    Comments »

  • Mar, 2012

    , , , , , , , ,

    Importance of Unions

    Q. And how important are unions for Australian working people today?

     

    Total

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

    Work full time

    Work part time

    Total very/quite important

    56%

    80%

    39%

    71%

    55%

    57%

    Very important

    19%

    34%

    8%

    31%

    18%

    16%

    Quite important

    37%

    46%

    31%

    40%

    37%

    41%

    Not very important

    27%

    12%

    39%

    21%

    30%

    31%

    Not at all important

    8%

    2%

    16%

    8%

    8%

    Don’t know

    9%

    6%

    6%

    7%

    7%

    5%

    56% think that unions are very or quite important for Australian working people today.

    80% of Labor voters and 71% of Greens voters think they are important compared to only 39% of Liberal/National voters.

    There was little difference by age and gender groups – but those on lower incomes were a little more likely to think unions are important (63% of those earning less than $1,000pw).

    Comments »

Error: