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Role of Government

30 May 2017

Q. Do you agree or disagree with the following statements about government?

  Total agree Total disagree   Strongly agree Agree Neither agree nor disagree Disagree Strongly disagree Don’t know
I wish out political leaders would look for more common solutions, rather than just fighting each other 85% 2%   47% 38% 9% 1% 1% 4%
I’m sick of slogan from politicians – I want real answers on how government can operate better 82% 3%   44% 38% 11% 2% 1% 5%
Our government needs to find ways of working with the rest of the world, and not turning our backs on the world 59% 11%   19% 40% 24% 8% 3% 6%
It is harder than ever for governments to control the influence of multinational corporations 55% 14%   17% 38% 21% 11% 3% 9%
People have unrealistic expectations of the government’s ability to sort everything out 45% 26%   11% 34% 23% 18% 8% 5%
Most politicians are motivated by good intentions rather than self interest 22% 47%   4% 18% 25% 26% 21% 6%

The statement most likely to be agreed with was “I wish our political leaders would look for more common solutions, rather than just fighting each other”, of which 85% agreed. Those most likely to agree with this statement were those aged 65+ (96% agree), other party/independent voters (94%) and those aged 55-64 (93%). No more than 5% of any demographic group disagreed with this statement.

The statement most likely to be disagreed with was “Most politicians are motivated by good intentions rather than self interest”, of which 47% disagreed. Those most likely to disagree with this were other party/independent voters (71% disagree), Greens voters (65%) and those aged 55-64 (57%). Those most likely to agree were Liberal/National voters (32%), those who work full time (26%) and those with a university degree (25%). This was also the only statement which a greater proportion disagreed than agreed with.

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