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Joe Hockey Statement

30 Apr 2012

Q. The Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey recently said people in Western countries have an attitude of “entitlement” and expect the Government to provide assistance and subsidies for things like education, health, income support, retirement benefits, unemployment benefits. Do you agree or disagree that people in Australia receive too much Government assistance?

 

Total

Vote Labor

Vote Lib/Nat

Vote Greens

Total agree

39%

27%

54%

19%

Total disagree

33%

55%

20%

58%

Strongly agree

14%

10%

21%

3%

Agree

25%

17%

33%

16%

Neither agree nor disagree

23%

21%

23%

23%

Disagree

18%

22%

13%

31%

Strongly disagree

15%

23%

7%

27%

Don’t know

5%

7%

3%

Respondents were somewhat evenly split on their response to this question – 39% agree that people in Australia receive too much Government assistance while 33% disagree.

23% neither agree nor disagree and 5% don’t know.

Lib/Nat voters were significantly more likely to agree that people in Australia receive too much Government assistance (54%). Labor (55%) and Green (58%) voters were more likely to disagree.

Males (44%) were far more likely than females (32%) to agree that people in Australia receive too much Government assistance.

Those aged 65+ were also more likely to agree with this statement (48%), however those aged 55-64 were less likely (34%).

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