Views towards Scott Morrison’s handling of recent Twitter controversy

Q. Which of the following is closer to your view on the recent controversy over an official Chinese Twitter account sharing a fake image on Twitter showing an Australian soldier threatening to kill a child?

	Total	Gender			Age Group				Federal Voting Intention
		Male	Female	18-34		35-54	55+	Labor		TOTAL: Coalition	Greens	TOTAL: Other
Scott Morrison was right to publicly demand an apology from the Chinese government, even if China retaliates by restricting trade with Australia	56%	55%	57%	48%		57%	62%	51%		65%	41%	68%
Scott Morrison should have let the issue be handled through diplomatic channels. At this time of economic uncertainty, the last thing we need is to publicly criticise our biggest trading partner	44%	45%	43%	52%		43%	38%	49%		35%	59%	32%
Base (n)	1,071	539	532	339		374	358	356		406	102	107

• Over half believe the Prime Minister was correct to demand an apology from the Chinese government regarding the fake Twitter incident (56%), but 44% believe it should have been handled by other diplomatic means.
• Those aged 18-34 (52%), Labor voters (49%) and Greens voters (59%) disagree with publicly criticising China over the incident.