This week’s Essential Report comes in with primaries running 50 (up 1)/34 (down 1) to the ALP, washing into a two party preferred of 60/40 - the ALP up two from last week. This comes from a 2 week rolling sample of 2108 for an MoE of around the 2.1% mark.
Additional question this week focused on issue importance, where the sample size was 1285 for an MoE around the 2.7% mark.
How important are the following issues in deciding how you would vote at a Federal election?
Which party do you think is best at handling each of the following issues?
Which party do you trust most to support an industrial relations system which best represents the interests and concerns of you and your family?
On the cross-tabs Essential says:
Respondents aged 50 years and over were more likely than the average respondent to trust the Liberal party by a lot/by a little when it comes to ‘supporting an industrial relations system which best represents the interests and concerns of you and your family’ (25% Liberal by a lot/a little).
Thinking about the global financial crisis, which of the following statements comes closest to your opinion?
On the cross-tabs, Essential found:
49% of Coalition voters and 46% of Labor voters think that ‘if the Government takes the right actions – it can protect Australia’s economy from the effects of the global financial crisis.’
44% of Labor voters and 43% of Coalition voters agree with the position that ‘it doesn’t matter what the Government does – the Australian economy cannot be protected from the effects of the global financial crisis.’
People on higher incomes ($1600 + per week) were more likely to agree with the position that ‘it doesn’t matter what the Government does – the Australian economy cannot be protected from the effects of the global financial crisis’ (48%).
Females were more likely to agree with the position that ‘if the Government takes the right actions – it can protect Australia’s economy from the effects of the global financial crisis (47%), while males were more likely to agree that ‘it doesn’t matter what the Government does – the Australian economy cannot be protected from the effects of the global financial crisis’ (47%).
Thinking about climate change, which of the following statements comes closest to your opinion?
On the cross-tabs:
Labor voters were most likely to agree that ‘tackling climate change will overall add to jobs by saving jobs in tourism and agriculture and creating jobs in the renewable energy sector’ (50%), while Coalition voters were more likely to think that ‘tackling climate change will cost jobs overall because we will lose jobs in the coal industry and in energy intensive industries like aluminium smelting and steel production’ (37%). The majority of Green voters (74%) agree with the position that ‘tackling climate change will overall add to jobs by saving jobs in tourism and agriculture and creating jobs in the renewable energy sector’.
Respondents aged 18 – 24 were most likely to agree with the position that ‘tackling climate change will overall add to jobs by saving jobs in tourism and agriculture and creating jobs in the renewable energy sector’ (64%), while respondents aged 50 years and over were more likely to think that ‘tackling climate change will cost jobs overall because we will lose jobs in the coal industry and in energy intensive industries like aluminium smelting and steel production’ (33%).
Females were more likely to agree that ‘tackling climate change will overall add to jobs by saving jobs in tourism and agriculture and creating jobs in the renewable energy sector’ (50%), while males were more likely to think that ‘tackling climate change will cost jobs overall because we will lose jobs in the coal industry and in energy intensive industries like aluminium smelting and steel production’ (31%).
Do you approve or disapprove of the actions of the independent senators in holding up and demanding changes to recent Government legislation – such as the stimulus package, industrial relations, and the alcopops tax.
On the cross-tabs Essential says:
Coalition voters were more likely to strongly approve/approve of the actions of the independent senators in holding up and demanding changes to recent Government legislation – such as the stimulus package, industrial relations, and the alcopops tax (52%) while Labor voters were more likely to strongly disapprove/disapprove of the recent actions of the independent senators in holding up and demanding changes to recent Government legislation (43%).
