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Unions in Australia

10 Sep 2012

Q. Overall, do you think unions have been good or bad for Australian working people? 

 

19 Mar 2012

This week 10 Sept 12

Vote Labor

Vote Lib/Nat

Vote Greens

Work full time

Work part time

Total good

48%

45%

67%

30%

74%

47%

51%

Total bad

17%

20%

4%

36%

6%

22%

18%

Very good

12%

11%

20%

4%

28%

11%

12%

Good

36%

34%

47%

26%

46%

36%

39%

Neither good nor bad

28%

27%

24%

30%

13%

25%

21%

Bad

11%

12%

3%

20%

5%

12%

11%

Very bad

6%

8%

1%

16%

1%

10%

7%

Don’t know

6%

8%

6%

4%

7%

5%

9%

The largest portion of respondents polled believe that overall, unions have been good for Australian working people (45% total good), whilst a fifth of respondents (20%) felt that they had been bad for working people.   Results have moved slightly since the last time the question was polled in March 2012, with those respondents regarding unions as good dropping from 48% to 45% and those regarding them as bad rising the equivalent amount from 17% to 20% in the same period.

Looking at the results by voting intention, Greens voters were by the most likely to believe that unions had been good for working people (74%), whilst Coalition voters were by far the most likely to believe that unions had been bad for Australian working people (36%).

The majority of part time workers believed that unions had been good for Australian working people (51%) compared with 47% of full time workers.

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