10 September 2012, 100912, afghanistan, increase troops, keep troops, troops, War on terror, withdraw troops
Q. Thinking about the Australian troops in Afghanistan, do you think Australia should –
|
21 Jun 2010 |
9 May 2011 |
21 Nov 2011 |
19 Mar 2012 |
This week 10 Sept 2012 |
Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
|
| Increase the number of troops in Afghanistan |
7% |
6% |
3% |
4% |
4% |
5% |
6% |
3% |
| Keep the same number of troops in Afghanistan |
24% |
36% |
22% |
22% |
23% |
23% |
27% |
20% |
| Withdraw our troops from Afghanistan |
61% |
48% |
64% |
64% |
62% |
60% |
58% |
65% |
| Don’t know |
8% |
11% |
11% |
10% |
11% |
12% |
9% |
12% |
There is little change in respondents’ positions on troops in Afghanistan. Compared to the last time the question was polled six months ago in March 2012, 4% still believe that we should increase the number of troops. Belief that we should maintain the same number of troops increased 1% to 23% and belief that we should withdraw troops fell just 2 points from 64% in March 2012 to 62%.
Looking at the results by voting intention, Coalition voters were the most in favour of maintaining troop numbers (27%) compared to Labor voters (23%) and Greens voters (20%). Greens voters were the most likely to want to withdraw troops from Afghanistan (65%) when compared with Labor voters (60%) and Coalition voters (58%).