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  • Apr, 2014

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    Raising pension age

    Q. Would you approve or disapprove of raising the pension age to 70?

     

    Total

     

     

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

    Vote other

    Total approve

    20%

    14%

    31%

    15%

    20%

    Total disapprove

    71%

    80%

    60%

    72%

    73%

    Strongly approve

    4%

    5%

    6%

    2%

    4%

    Approve

    16%

    9%

    25%

    13%

    16%

    Disapprove

    31%

    26%

    33%

    41%

    32%

    Strongly disapprove

    40%

    54%

    27%

    31%

    41%

    Don’t know

    9%

    6%

    9%

    12%

    6%

    71% disapprove of raising the pension age to 70 and 20% approve.

    Although a majority of all demographic and voters groups disapproved, those more likely to approve were Liberal/National voters (31%), men (26%) and aged 65+ (32%).

    Those more likely to disapprove were women (77%) and aged 45-64 (81%).

  • Apr, 2014

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    Pension age

    Q. At what age do you think Australians should be able to receive the age pension?

     

    Total

     

     

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

    Vote other

    Less than 65

    14%

    16%

    13%

    9%

    14%

    65

    58%

    60%

    54%

    61%

    59%

    66

    2%

    2%

    1%

    1%

    3%

    67

    8%

    8%

    9%

    12%

    4%

    68

    3%

    1%

    3%

    3%

    3%

    69

    1%

    1%

    1%

    1%

    70

    10%

    7%

    15%

    6%

    10%

    Don’t know

    5%

    4%

    3%

    9%

    5%

    72% believe that Australians should be able to receive the age pension at 65 or younger. Only 10% think they should have to wait till 70 to receive the pension.

    A majority of all demographic and voter groups think the eligible age should be 65 or less. The most divided group was aged 65+, with 53% nominating 65 or less and 46% nominating an age over 65.

  • Apr, 2014

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    Pension assets test

    Q. Would you approve or disapprove of including the value of the family home in the assets test for eligibility for the age pension?

     

    Total

     

     

    Vote Labor

    Vote Lib/Nat

    Vote Greens

    Vote other

    Total approve

    26%

    27%

    29%

    21%

    26%

    Total disapprove

    64%

    65%

    60%

    66%

    67%

    Strongly approve

    7%

    8%

    6%

    6%

    12%

    Approve

    19%

    19%

    23%

    15%

    14%

    Disapprove

    26%

    26%

    24%

    33%

    27%

    Strongly disapprove

    38%

    39%

    36%

    33%

    40%

    Don’t know

    11%

    8%

    12%

    11%

    7%

    64% disapprove of including the value of the family home in the assets test for eligibility for the age pension and 26% approve.

    Although a majority of all demographic and voter groups disapproved, those more likely to approve were aged under 35 (36%) and university educated (30%).

    82% of those aged 55-64 disapprove.

  • Jan, 2014

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    Pension and benefit payments

    Q. Do you think the following pensions and benefits are too high, too low or about right?

    Too high

    Too low

    About right

    Don’t know

     

     

    Too high

    Too low

    About right

    Don’t know

    Age pension

    2%

    64%

    25%

    8%

    Age pension ($827 a fortnight for a single person)

    5%

    52%

    35%

    8%

    Disability support pension

    8%

    47%

    31%

    14%

    Disability support pension ($813 a fortnight)

    8%

    47%

    35%

    10%

    Unemployment benefit

    27%

    27%

    35%

    11%

    Unemployment benefit ($501 a fortnight for a single person without children)

    25%

    35%

    31%

    9%

    Parenting payment

    31%

    23%

    32%

    14%

    Parenting payment ($700 a fortnight for a single parent)

    26%

    34%

    29%

    10%

    Note: Half the sample was asked this question without specifying the payment amounts and half was asked with the payment amounts specified.

    For half the sample that were not told the specific payment amount, 64% thought the age pension was too low and 47% thought the disability support pension was too low. Opinions on unemployment benefits and parenting payments were split – on unemployment benefits the most common response was “about right” (35%) and about right (32%) or too high (31%) for parenting payments.

    The half that were told the payments amounts were less likely to think the age pension was too low (52%), had similar perceptions of the disability support pension and were more likely to think unemployment benefits (35%) and parenting payments (34%) were too low.

    For the age pension while 58% of those aged 65+ thought it was too low, 76% of those aged 45-64 thought it was too low.

  • Jun, 2013

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    Government decisions

    Q. Thinking about the decisions the Labor Government has made over the last few years, do you think the following decisions were good or bad for Australia?

     

    Total good

    Total bad

    Very good

    Good

    Neither good nor bad

    Bad

    Very bad

    Don’t know

    Sep 12 good

    Sep 12 bad

    Expanding dental health services for people on low incomes

    73%

    8%

    28%

    45%

    15%

    4%

    4%

    5%

    77%

    5%

    Increasing the tax free threshold from $6,000 to $18,200

    72%

    8%

    34%

    38%

    15%

    5%

    3%

    5%

    75%

    4%

    Increasing the age pension

    67%

    14%

    27%

    40%

    16%

    10%

    4%

    4%

    70%

    11%

    Protecting large areas of Australia’s marine environment in a network of marine reserves

    66%

    10%

    27%

    39%

    19%

    6%

    4%

    5%

    67%

    8%

    Introducing the National Disability Insurance Scheme

    63%

    9%

    26%

    37%

    20%

    5%

    4%

    8%

    58%

    5%

    Increasing superannuation from 9% to 12%

    62%

    14%

    24%

    38%

    19%

    10%

    4%

    5%

    68%

    9%

    Stimulus spending to tackle the Global Financial Crisis (GFC)

    50%

    26%

    21%

    29%

    19%

    17%

    9%

    5%

    54%

    22%

    Introducing a tax on large profits of mining companies

    49%

    27%

    21%

    28%

    20%

    15%

    12%

    5%

    49%

    25%

    Building the NBN (National Broadband Network)

    48%

    28%

    22%

    26%

    18%

    15%

    13%

    6%

    43%

    28%

    Paid parental leave

    48%

    22%

    14%

    34%

    24%

    13%

    9%

    5%

    52%

    20%

    Spending on new school buildings during the GFC

    47%

    26%

    12%

    35%

    20%

    15%

    11%

    6%

    53%

    22%

    Implementing the recommendations of the Gonski report to increase education funding

    46%

    22%

    17%

    29%

    23%

    12%

    10%

    9%

    54%

    8%

    Abolished WorkChoices

    42%

    27%

    23%

    19%

    22%

    17%

    10%

    10%

    42%

    27%

    Introducing a carbon tax to tackle climate change

    32%

    48%

    14%

    18%

    16%

    18%

    30%

    4%

    28%

    51%

    The two most popular decisions of the Labor Government are ‘expanding dental health services for people on low incomes’ (73% total good) and ‘increasing the tax free threshold from $6,000 to $18,000 (72% total good).  The least popular decisions were ‘Implementing the recommendations of the Gonski report (46% total good), ‘Abolished WorkChoices’ (42% total good) and ‘introducing a carbon tax to tackle climate change’ (32% total good).

    The only issue which received a net negative response was ‘introducing a carbon tax to tackle climate change’, where 48% of respondents believed it to be bad for Australia.

    Since this question was previously asked last September, perceptions of most decisions have become a little more negative – with the exceptions of the “carbon tax” which shifted from 28% to 32% ‘good’, the ‘NDIS’ which shifted from 58% to 63% ‘good’ and building the NBN which shifted from 43% to 48% ‘good’.

    The largest negative shifts were for the ‘Gonski recommendations’ (down 8% to 46%), increasing super (down 6% to 62%) and spending on schools during the GFC (down 6% to 47%).

  • Sep, 2012

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    Decisions of the Labor Government

    Q. Thinking about the decisions the Labor Government has made over the last few years, do you think the following decisions were good or bad for Australia?

    Total good

    Total bad

    Very good

    Good

    Neither good nor bad

    Bad

    Very bad

    Don’t know

    Expanding dental health services for people on low incomes

    77%

    5%

    33%

    44%

    14%

    2%

    3%

    5%

    Increasing the tax free threshold from $6,000 to $18,200

    75%

    4%

    36%

    39%

    16%

    3%

    1%

    5%

    Increasing the age pension

    70%

    11%

    30%

    40%

    13%

    7%

    4%

    6%

    Increasing superannuation from 9% to 12%

    68%

    9%

    27%

    41%

    16%

    6%

    3%

    6%

    Protecting large areas of Australia’s marine environment in a network of marine reserves

    67%

    8%

    28%

    39%

    20%

    5%

    3%

    7%

    Introducing the National Disability Insurance Scheme

    58%

    5%

    21%

    37%

    23%

    3%

    2%

    14%

    Implementing the recommendations of the Gonski report to increase education funding

    54%

    8%

    20%

    34%

    25%

    5%

    3%

    13%

    Stimulus spending to tackle the Global Financial Crisis (GFC)

    54%

    22%

    22%

    32%

    18%

    14%

    8%

    8%

    Spending on new school buildings during the GFC

    53%

    22%

    15%

    38%

    18%

    12%

    10%

    6%

    Paid parental leave

    52%

    20%

    17%

    35%

    23%

    12%

    8%

    5%

    Introducing a tax on large profits of mining companies

    49%

    25%

    24%

    25%

    17%

    13%

    12%

    8%

    Implementing the recommendations of the expert committee on asylum seekers including offshore processing

    45%

    15%

    15%

    30%

    28%

    8%

    7%

    12%

    Building the NBN (National Broadband Network)

    43%

    28%

    17%

    26%

    22%

    14%

    14%

    7%

    Abolished WorkChoices

    42%

    27%

    23%

    19%

    19%

    17%

    10%

    12%

    Introducing a carbon tax to tackle climate change

    28%

    51%

    14%

    14%

    15%

    16%

    35%

    7%

    The two most popular decisions of the Labor Government are ‘expanding dental health services for people on low incomes’ (77% total good) and ‘increasing the tax free threshold from $6,000 to $18,000 (75% total good).   The least popular decisions were ‘Building the NBN’ (43% total good), ‘Abolished WorkChoices’ (42% total good) and ‘introducing a carbon tax to tackle climate change’ (28% total good).

    Of the fifteen decisions put to respondents, the majority of respondents believed that 10 of the 15 decisions were good for Australia.  For the remaining 5 decisions, a larger portion of respondents generally regarded the decision to be good for Australia except for ‘introducing a carbon tax to tackle climate change’, where the majority of respondents (51%) believed it to be bad for Australia.

    Female respondents were more likely to endorse the dental health reforms (80% total good) compared with male respondents (74% total good).

    Increasing the age pension was most strongly supported by respondents aged 65+ (77% total good).

    Introducing paid parental leave was more popular with female respondents (57% total good), compared with male respondents (46% total good).  Looking at this decision by age, it was most popular amongst respondents aged 25-34 (62%) and 35-44 (62%) whereas respondents aged 65+ were the most likely to regard the decision as a bad one (36% total bad).

    Implementing the recommendations of the expert committee on asylum seekers including offshore processing proved to be a very popular decision amongst respondents aged 65+ (65% total good), whereas respondents aged 25-34 were the most likely to regard it as a bad decision (43% total bad).

    Female respondents were more likely to regard ‘protecting large areas of Australia’s marine environment’ as a good decision (72% total good) compared with male respondents (60% total good).

  • May, 2012

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    What can we learn from the Greeks?


    It’s increasingly clear that Greece’s woes are partly to blame on its public pension system — over generous, over subscribed and now underfunded.

    Like the rest of the western world, Australia also has an ageing population and some sections of the population are reliant on the government pension.

    James Coyle from AustralianSuper tells 3Q that our superannuation system keeps our economy strong and individuals protected. Super is not only a tax-effective way to save, it also reduces pressure on government funding because less people are solely reliant on the age pension.

    Although our super savings took a beating in the GFC, superannuation savings of $1.3 trillion helped Australia through the GFC via indirect investment to help Australian companies raise equity and lessen dependence on the overseas debt market.

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