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  • Nov, 2009

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    Management of Economic Issues

    Q. Between Liberal and Labor, which party do you think would be best at managing each of the following issues?

    When it comes to which party is best at handling economic issues, Labor leads the Liberal party on managing the improvement of wages for low income earners (+17%), executive salaries (+9%) and the age pension (+9%).

    Labor trails the Liberals in terms of managing government debt (-24%), followed by managing interest rates (-9%) and superannuation (-9%).

    Perception of which party is best at managing the economic issues listed followed party lines.

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  • Nov, 2009

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    Economic Conditions in Australia

    Q. Over the next 12 months do you think economic conditions in Australia will get better, get worse or stay much the same?

    Just over half (53%) think that over the next 12 months, economic conditions in Australia will get better, 23% think they will get worse and 21% think they will stay much the same.

    The number of people that think economic conditions in Australia will get better over the next 12 months has decreased thirteen percentage points since we last asked this question in October this year, and the number that think economic conditions will get worse has increased eight percentage points.  However, the current results are very similar to the August survey results and considerably more positive than results recorded up to June.

    Labor voters were more likely to think economic conditions will get better (65%), Coalition voters were more likely to think they will get worse (30%) and Green voters were more likely to think conditions will stay much the same (34%).

    People earning $1600 per week or more were more likely to think economic conditions will get better (60%), while people earning $600 – $1000 per week were more likely to think they will get worse (32%).

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  • Nov, 2009

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    Federal Government Handling of Asylum Seekers

    Q. Thinking about the way the Federal Government has handled the asylum seeker issue recently, do you think they have been too tough, too weak or have they taken about the right approach?

    %
    Too tough 9%
    Too weak 52%
    Taken about the right approach 28%
    Don’t know 11%

    Just over half (52%) think that the Federal Government has been too weak in how it has handled the asylum seeker issue recently, 28% think the Government have taken the right approach and 9% think they have been too tough.

    Males were more likely than females to think the Federal Government has been too weak (55% v 49%).

    People aged 55 years and over were more likely than 18 – 24 year olds to think the Government’s action has been too weak (64% v 32%).

    Labor voters were more likely to think the Federal Government has taken about the right approach (43%), Coalition voters were more likely to think the Government has been too weak (76%) and Green voters were more likely to think the Government’s approach has been too tough (33%).

    43% of Labor voters think the Federal Government has been too weak in its handling of the asylum seeker issue recently.

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  • Nov, 2009

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    Party Best at Handling the Issue of Asylum Seekers

    Q. Which party do you think would be best at handling the issue of asylum seekers?

    %
    Labor 23%
    Liberal 27%
    No difference 37%
    Don’t know 13%

    27% of people surveyed think Liberal is the best party at handling the issue of asylum seekers, 23% think Labor is and 37% think there is no difference in how the two major parties would handle the issue.

    Attitudes followed party lines – Coalition voters were more likely to prefer Liberal (65%) and Labor voters more likely to prefer Labor (65%).

    54% of Green, 38% of Labor voters and 24% of Coalition voters think there is no difference between how Liberal or Labor would handle the issue of asylum seekers.

    People aged 55 years and over were more likely to think Liberal would be best (36% Liberal to 22% Labor), while people aged under 35 were more likely to think Labor would be best at handling the issue of asylum seekers (27% Labor to 20% Liberal).

    Males were more likely to think Liberal would be the party best to handle the issue (31%), while females were more likely to think there is no difference (40%).

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  • Oct, 2009

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    Federal Politics – Voting Intention

    Q. If there was a Federal election held today, to which party would you probably give your first preference?

    Q. If you ‘don’t know’ on the above question, which party are you currently leaning to?

    *1845 sample size

    NB.  The data in the above table is derived from our weekly first preference voting question.  Respondents who select ‘don’t know’ as their first preference are not included in the results.

    * Sample is the culmination of two week’s data.

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