Essential Report, 28 August 2018:
Showing posts with label poll. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poll. Show all posts
Tuesday 4 September 2018
What voters think of the main political parties in Australia
ABC
News, 30 August 2018:
When asked by Essential
to say which common statements fit the two major parties, the Liberals
outranked Labor on almost every negative statement and were behind Labor on
every positive statement…..
What voters think of the
Liberals and Labor
Divided
Liberal
79%
Labor
46%
Too close to the big corporate and
financial interests
Liberal
67%
Labor
36%
Out of touch with ordinary people
Liberal
69%
Labor
51%
Looks after the interests of working
people
Liberal
32%
Labor
55%
Clear about what they stand for
Liberal
33%
Labor
47%
Has a good team of leaders
Liberal
31%
Labor
39%
Understands the problems facing
Australia
Liberal
40%
Labor
48%
Have a vision for the future
Liberal
43%
Labor
48%
Extreme
Liberal
40%
Labor
36%
Trustworthy
Liberal
30%
Labor
34%
Have good policies
Liberal
40%
Labor
43%
Will promise to do anything to win
votes
Liberal
68%
Labor
70%
Moderate
Liberal
48%
Labor
50%
Keeps its promises
Liberal
28%
Labor
30%
The survey was conducted online from
24th to 26th August 2018 and is based on 1,035 respondents.
Essential Report, 28 August 2018:
Labels:
Australian politics,
poll,
statistics
Monday 21 May 2018
The Turnbull Government has the solution to its poll number blues already at hand - but will it act?
lesterlost.com |
By the time
of the 2016 Census there were 200,000
more homes sitting empty across the country than there had been a decade ago.
An est. 11.2
per cent of residential properties were unoccupied, up from 9.8 per cent in
2006.
There is currently an
artificial scarcity of residential housing in this country which governments seem intent on ignoring.
Similarly homelessness
has increased in Australia and rental
accommodation is frequently beyond the financial reach of many people whose
sole income is a Centrelink pension, benefit, allowance or payment.
It has been
reported in 2018 that 250 people are turned away from crisis centres across
the country every day.
Again,
governments are not paying enough attention to the social and economic costs to
their own budgetary bottom line this growing problem will cause.
The latest Newspoll
published on 13 May 2018 was conducted from Thursday 10 May to Sunday 13 May
with 1,728 survey respondents.
It shows
the Lib-Nat Coalition’s primary vote standing at 39% to Labor’s 38%. However the Coalition trailed Labor
49 to 51 on a two-party preferred basis, with that margin the coalition's best
position since September 2016.
That is the
32nd Newspoll in a row where the Labor Opposition was ahead of the
Turnbull Government on a two-party preferred basis.
If Turnbull
& Co really wanted to turn primary and two-party preferred polling numbers
around they would announce some substantial new policy measures in the months following the 2018-19 Budget.
The phasing out of negative gearing of investment properties over a ten year period, reforming capital gain provisions and creating more tied
grants for social housing would be a good start.
Tuesday 24 April 2018
Repeat after me: Australia is a low-taxing country, a low-taxing country.....
“Australia
is a low-taxing country. While tax debate in Australia tends to focus on tax
rates, with endless comparisons of different countries’ rates of different
taxes, these debates ignore the fact that Australia raises far less tax revenue
than most developed countries.
This is
not a problem in itself. There is no right or wrong level of taxation. However,
the level of tax revenue raised inevitably affects governments’ ability to fund
essential services such as health, education, social security, defence and
infrastructure. Polling consistently shows that the Australian public would
prefer higher levels of spending on public services than lower tax collection.” [The Australia Institute, 17 April 2018]
So Prime Minister Turnbull and Treasurer Morrison will ignore polls like this one, because the only voters with influence are found in the ranks of political donors, big business and industry.
The Australia Institute, 18 April 2018:
Small government has
small support - National poll
A large national poll of
1,557 Australians, released today by think tank The Australia Institute, has
shown 64% of people want more public spending funded by tax revenue. Just 11%
want lower taxes and less public spending.
*
Two-thirds (64%) said they would prefer more public spending, funded by more
tax
revenue, and less inequality.
* Only 11% said they
wanted lower public spending, lower tax and more inequality.
* A majority of voters
for all parties selected the more spending and more tax option:
*
56% of both PHON voters and Other voters;
*
60% of LNP voters;
*
71% of ALP voters;
* 75% of Green
voters.Polling Brief - April 2018 - more or less spending tax inequality.pdf
P521 Australia a low tax country.pdf
Tuesday 10 April 2018
So many Newspoll losses mean democratic processes at risk as Turnbull Government strives to claw back political ground
“The Coalition now trails Labor by 47.5 per cent to
52.5 per cent in two-party terms across the four polls. This reflects a 48:52
result from Fairfax/Ipsos, the same from Newspoll, the same from Essential and
a 46:54 result from ReachTel on March 29.” [The
Sydney Morning Herald, 9 April 2016]
From
May 2014 to September 2015 the Abbott
Coalition Government experienced 30 consecutive negative Newspoll federal voting intentions
opinion polls*.
After
the sacking of Tony Abbott by his party and the installation of Malcolm
Turnbull as prime minister the Turnbull Coalition
Government saw 12 positive Newspolls before this second rendition
of a Coalition federal government itself experienced 30 consecutive negative
Newspolls from 12 September 2016 to 9 April 2018.
This
polling history indicates that the Liberal-National federal government is
likely to have only had the national electorate’s approval for around ten of
the last thirty-seven calendar months.
According
to the Australian Electoral Commission;
As
House of Representatives and half-Senate elections are usually held
simultaneously, the earliest date for such an election would be Saturday 4
August 2018. As the latest possible date for a half-Senate election is Saturday
18 May 2019, the latest possible date for a simultaneous (half-Senate and House
of Representatives) election is also Saturday 18 May 2019.
Given
that (i) between them the Abbott and
Turnbull governments have
experienced experienced only 12 positive
polls in the last 68 Newspolls; and (ii)
the Liberal Party has already admitted that during its successful March 2018 South Australian
election it had utilised
the services of one of the known “bad actors” on the international election campaign
consultancy scene, the US-based data miner i360;
it is highly likely that “bad actors” will be employed once more and over the
next four to thirteen months voters will be subjected to a barrage of
misinformation, bald lies, vicious rumour and false promises from both
Coalition politicians and their supporters in mainstream and social media.
Voters will have to fact check what they hear and read as never before.
Voters will have to fact check what they hear and read as never before.
* A
federal voting intentions Newspoll is
considered negative for one or other of the two main political parties based on two party preferred percentage results.
Newspolls surveys normally occur every two to three weeks outside of election campaign periods when they are likely to occur more often.
Newspoll results can be found at https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/newspoll.
Newspolls surveys normally occur every two to three weeks outside of election campaign periods when they are likely to occur more often.
Newspoll results can be found at https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/newspoll.
Sunday 8 April 2018
Is the U.S. becoming a country hostile to Australian tourists?
According to
the Australian Bureau of
Statistics there were 13.7 million internet subscribers in Australia at
the end of June 2017 and a 2016
Deloitte survey found that 84% of Australians had a smart phone.
An est. 20
million Australians use
a social media platform like Facebook,
Instragram or Twitter
via a desktop computer or mobile phone.
Because we
are one of the most digitally connected populations in the world the United
States is about to pose an additional risk to our personal Internet privacy and
safety if we seek any form of visa entry into that country.
ABC
News, 31
March 2018:
A US federal government
proposal to collect social media identities of nearly everyone who seeks entry
into the country has been described as a "chilling" encroachment on
freedom of speech and association.
The State Department
filed a proposal which would require most immigrant and non-immigrant visa
applicants to list all social media identities they have used in the past five
years, as well as previously used telephone numbers, email addresses and their
international travel history over the same period.
The information would be
used to vet and identify them, which would affect about 14.7 million people
annually.
The proposal goes
further than rules instituted last May. Those changes instructed consular
officials to collect social media identities only when they determined
"that such information is required to confirm identity or conduct more
rigorous national security vetting," a State Department official said at
the time.
The proposal requires
approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) but it supports
President Donald Trump's campaign promise to institute "extreme
vetting" of foreigners entering the US to prevent terrorism.
The American Civil
Liberties Union expressed concern, saying the move would have a
"chilling" effect on freedom of speech and association.
"People will now
have to wonder if what they say online will be misconstrued or misunderstood by
a government official," Hina Shamsi, director of ACLU's National Security
Project, said in a statement.
"We're also
concerned about how the Trump administration defines the vague and over-broad
term a 'terrorist activities' because it is inherently political and can be
used to discriminate against immigrants who have done nothing wrong.
Australian public opinion was changing on the subject of US-Australia relations before this latest Trump Regime move against digital privacy - it began to shift after Donald Trump was elected US president......
Australian public opinion was changing on the subject of US-Australia relations before this latest Trump Regime move against digital privacy - it began to shift after Donald Trump was elected US president......
ABC
News, January
2018:
Recent polling by the United States Studies Centre
(USSC) and YouGov — surveying both Australians and Americans — gives
mixed grades on American strength after the first year of Mr Trump's
presidency. Perceptions of American strength and international security are
closely linked for large portions of the publics in both countries — with some
interesting exceptions. Our data suggest that many see the world as more
dangerous precisely because the United States is perceived to be weaker under
Mr Trump.
Almost half of Australians report that the United
States has grown weaker over the past 12 months.
Only 19 per cent of
Australians think America has grown stronger over the first year of the Trump
presidency.
Americans are less dour
in their assessments, with 36 per cent saying that the United States has become
weaker over the last year. "Weaker" leads "stronger"
by 27 points in the Australian data, but this difference is just six points
among Americans….
Does a stronger (or
weaker) America under Mr Trump affect assessments of Australia's security? It's
complicated. In the aggregate, Australians associate a stronger America with a
safer world and a safer United States, but this does not extend to assessments of
Australian security.
More than half of
Coalition voters say Australia faces more danger than a few years ago,
irrespective of assessments of American power under Mr Trump. Labor voters and
minor party supporters do associate a weaker America with a less secure
Australia.
For Greens voters — at
best sceptical about the US-Australia relationship — a weaker America makes for
a safer Australia. Most Greens voters report that America is weaker under Mr
Trump and just 32 per cent of those see heightened dangers for Australia over the
last few years; among Greens seeing America as stronger under Mr Trump, half
report things becoming more dangerous for Australia, although the small number
of Greens in our data prevent firm conclusions.
Historically, a robust,
bipartisan consensus has seen little partisanship in Australian public opinion
on the value of Australia's relationship with the United States. Our data
suggest that this equilibrium is under some stress. References to Mr Trump
activate partisan differences in Australian thinking about the United
States. While Australians (like Americans) associate increases in American
power with a safer world, a perceived link with enhanced Australian security is
weak at best (and probably inverted for Greens voters).
On the other hand,
despite large partisan divisions, Americans continue to associate American
strength with increased security for America's allies.
This proposition has
been the bedrock of Australian foreign policy and defence thinking for decades,
and remains so, Mr Trump notwithstanding. Accordingly, our data allows us to
restate the challenge for the current generation of Australian policy makers
and political leaders: articulating the value and relevance of the US
relationship to an Australian public at best unsure about the direction of the
United States under Mr Trump and the implications for Australia's security and
prosperity.
Tuesday 6 February 2018
26th Newspoll loss in a row for Turnbull Government
In the same week the 2018
Australian Parliament commenced business for the year Malcolm Bligh Turnbull was just four Newspolls short of the benchmark he created when he successfully challenged
Tony Abbott in September 2015 and became Australia’s 29th Prime Minister.
As of 4
February 2018 Newspoll
shows the Coalition is just one point ahead of Labor on the primary
vote and on a Two Party Preferred basis it is four points behind.
While net satisfaction
with leaders’ performance sees Turnbull a slender four points ahead at minus
13.
Should we
expect a Libspill sometime in
April-May 2018 if the polls continue this trend? Or are the Liberal and Nationals powerbrokers going to grit
their teeth and soldier on until the forthcoming federal election?
Labels:
Australian Parliament,
Australian politics,
poll,
statistics
Friday 2 February 2018
How we see the cost of living in Australia in 2018
Essential Report, 30 January 2018:
A substantial majority believe that, in the last 12 months, cost of living (73%) and electricity costs (75%) have all got worse. The only economic measure that has got better is company profits (42% better/12% worse).
Compared the last time this question was asked in February 2016, there has been an increase in the percentage that think electricity costs (up 13% to 75%) have got worse. However, there has also been an increase in the percentage that think company profits (+12), unemployment (+19) and the economy overall (+18) have got better.
Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), media release, 31 January 2018:
51% (down 2% since
August) believe that, in the last two years, their income has fallen behind the
cost of living. 28% (up 3%) think it has stayed even with the cost of living
and 14% (down 1%) think it has gone up more.
64% of those earning
under $600 pw and 58% of those earning $600-1,000 pw think their income has
fallen behind while 54% of those earning over $2,000 pw think it has stayed the
same or gone up.
According to the ABS, over the last
twelve months up to end September 2017 the Living Cost Index* rose:
2.0% for Pensioner
and Beneficiary Households
2.1% for
Other Government Transfer Recipient Households
1.7% for Age
Pensioner Households
1.6% for Self-Funded
Retiree Households
1.5% for Employee
Households
One of the principal drivers to the rise in costs for these groups has been the rise in housing costs due to the rise in wholesale electricity costs.
Labels:
Australian society,
costs,
Income,
poll,
statistics,
wages
Monday 8 January 2018
So where does Australia stand on climate change at the start of 2018?
On 21 December 2017 IPSOS Social Research Institute released its 2017 Climate Change Report which provides the findings the company’s annual climate change research.
It would appear that the Australian general public is not walking away from a belief that climate change is real, that it is affecting our lives and action on the part of government is required.
IPSOS, Climate Change Report 2017, excerpts:
Priorities of environmental action
Once again, renewable energy is the top environmental issue Australians would act on if they were in charge of decision-making. More than half (56%) identify renewable energy as an issue they would choose to address. The majority of Australians have identified renewable energy as an issue for action every year since surveying began in 2007.
Compared with 2016, there has been no movement in the top 6 issues of importance. Water and river Heath (49%) came in at number two. This is its highest rating for action since 2012 (when it was 52).
In third place in 2017 is illegal waste dumping (46%), followed by deforestation (45%), sustainability and climate change (both 43%).
In 2016 we noted that climate change had hit its highest rating since 2008 (when 47% believed it to be a top priority for action), and it retains that sixth place with more than two in five Australians once again identifying it as an issue for action.
Australians in regional areas are more likely to identify renewable energy as an issue for action compared with their counterparts in capital cities (62% ‘rest of Australia’ vs. 53% capital city residents). The same pattern is observed for water and river health (58% vs. 44%) and deforestation (51% vs. 42%).
The role of human activity in climate change
The past few years have seen a growing consensus in the political sphere that climate change is caused by human-driven processes. In the face of this change, Australians’ views of the causes of climate change have moved little in the past decade. This stasis has continued in 2017.
Only 3% of Australians think there is no such thing as climate change. Around one-in-ten (12%) believe climate change is caused entirely or mostly by natural processes. Two-in-five (42%) believe that human activity is mainly or entirely responsible for climate change and 38% believe that climate change is caused partly by humans and partly by natural processes.
Half of Australians aged under 50 years of age believe that climate change is mostly or entirely caused by human activity (50%) compared with one-third of those aged 50 and above (31%).
Voting intention, like age, is linked to public opinion on the role of human activity in climate change. Liberal voters and One Nation voters are less likely to think that climate change was mostly or entirely caused by human activity (34% and 25% respectively). Whereas, Labor voters and Greens voters are more likely to identify human activity as mostly or entirely causing climate change (50% and 69% respectively). There are no differences by geography, but those with a university degree are also more likely to say human activities are entirely or mainly responsible (51%).....
Climate change is a pressing issue with serious consequences
Most Australians think that climate change is already underway (62% either strongly or somewhat agree). More than half (54%) agree that it poses a serious threat to our way of life over the next 25 years. This increases to 64% agreement when considering the next 100 years…….
Who’s responsible for action on climate change, and who’s doing a good job?
….In 2017, Australians consider the international community to be performing best of the parties tested. More than one in five (22%) feel that the performance of the international community is very or fairly good (compared with 19% in 2016).
This means the international community overtakes State Governments in relation to perceived performance on climate change. In 2016, 20% said State Governments. This year, State Governments and the Federal Government sit in second place and 18% rated both these levels of government as very or fairly good. As in 2016, business and industry was considered the lowest performer (15% rated their performance as good).
Although business and industry is regarded as being the poorest performer of the groups tested, combined with such a low expectation of leading action on climate change, arguably this poor perception of performance is not as relevant as it is for the Federal Government (which carries the greatest weight of responsibility).
Liberal voters are far more complimentary about the current Federal Government’s performance on action on climate change (31% gave a good rating compared with 16% of Labor voters and 10% of Greens voters).
Who should be mainly responsible for action on climate change?
Participants were asked to rate the performance of the Federal Government, the international community, State Governments and business. It is apparent that Australians do not believe that any of these parties are performing particularly well on climate action.
Labels:
Australian society,
climate change,
poll,
statistics
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