ANUpoll: Attitudes to Government and Government Services

The latest quarterly Australian National University poll on various aspects of public opinion was released earlier this week, this one targeting “attitudes to government and government services”, as well as asking its usual question on the most important problems facing the country. The poll is derived from a weighted sample of 2001 respondents to phone polling conducted between September 5 and 18, and boasts a margin of error of 2 per cent.

• Satisfaction with the “the way democracy works in Australia” produced the same results as obtained from the ANU’s Australian Election Study survey after last year’s election, with 73 per cent satisfied and 27 per cent not satisfied. Last year’s result marked a plunge from 86 per cent satisfaction recorded after the 2007 election, which was part of an apparent peak recorded in the middle of the previous decade. The report notes that of 29 advanced democracies surveyed in the 1990s, only the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and the United States had higher levels of satisfaction with democracy than Australia (I suspect the mentality at work in the latter country differed from the first three).

• The public appears to have soured on the federal tier of government since 2008, when 40 per cent of respondents were receptive to an expansion in federal power. This time it’s at 30 per cent, with opposition up from 39 per cent to 50 per cent. Western Australia stands out among the state breakdowns, recording only 18 per cent support compared with 29 to 35 per cent for the other states. The current results still compare favourably with 1979, the previous occasion when an ANU survey had posed the question, when 17 per cent were supportive against 66 per cent opposed.

• Respondents were a lot more inclined to believe taxes, unemployment and especially prices had gone up since Labor came to power than they were to believe that health, education and living standards had improved. In the case of prices, this is incontestably correct: the inflation rate may be a different matter, but this isn’t what was asked. However, 58 per cent believed prices had risen “a lot”, which is probably untrue in historical terms. The figures for unemployment offer an even more telling insight into voter psychology, with only 19 per cent believing it had done anything so boring as remain the same, which it essentially has. Forty per cent believed it had increased against 29 per cent who thought it had decreased, which no doubt tells you something significant about the government’s fortunes.

• A trend of recent years has been maintained with higher support recorded for increased social spending (55 per cent in the current poll) than for reduced taxes (39 per cent). The report notes that opinion on government spending “tends to be both secular – in that it is largely unrelated to partisan debates and changes in government – and cyclical – in that it is responsive to broader economic conditions”. Contra John Maynard Keynes, it seems that “national electorates are more likely to favour spending on social services and welfare when economic conditions are benign”. Tax cuts are preferred to government spending to stimulate the economy during downturns.

• The policy areas in which respondents most wanted more money to be spent were education (81 per cent want more spending) and aged pensions (71 per cent), with unemployment the only area where more wanted spending cut (33 per cent) than increased (20 per cent). Small businesses (66 per cent) beat people on low incomes (52 per cent) as most deserving of tax relief, with mining companies, banks and companies which produce carbon pollution essentially tied for least deserving (in each case 59 per cent thought they paid too little tax). Somewhat bewilderingly, all revenue-generating measures suggested to respondents recorded very strong support, and while “a carbon tax on the 500 largest polluting companies” was the least popular of the seven, it still had 63 per cent approval and 34 per cent disapproval.

• As always, respondents were asked to identify the two most important problems facing Australia today. Following the previous poll in July I produced a chart plotting the progression of this series since April 2008. If that were updated with the current results it would show “economy/jobs” continuing to trend upwards (37 per cent rated it first or second, up from 34 per cent) and “better government” jerking sharply upwards from 14 per cent to 26 per cent, taking third place behind a stable immigration (down a point to 31 per cent).

NOTE FOR READERS: Following a software upgrade, the feature which breaks pages down into digestible chunks of 50 comments is not working. This will be rectified, but in the meantime I will be keeping the posts frequent to keep the comments pages at manageable lengths.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

848 comments on “ANUpoll: Attitudes to Government and Government Services”

Comments Page 15 of 17
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  1. [FlynnHQFlynn

    #QANTAS $500,000,000 profit while paying equitable wages & maintaining high standards, seems good to me. Joyce feels no loyalty to Aus.

    11 seconds agoFavoriteReply]

    Their ABC95 concentrates on Rudd not being able to fly out – he can use RAAF Jets.

    Geoffery Thomas from The West sides with Qantas – how surprisement.

  3. Jackol

    Why do you think Qantas’ market had dropped, profit had dropped and share price had dropped.

    As for Virgin’s use of casual labour, do you blame them for using labour that they can get rid of anytime they want

    As for Gillard stepping in, 80,000 travellers had been delayed, costing Australian tourism and Qantas billions, if that was not the time to step in, Is Gillard stupid

  4. International unions are expressing their solidarity with Qantas staff:
    [unisonhousing UNISON Housing Assoc
    by Gweneth01
    @OccupyAusUnions #occupyqantas #occupytulamarine #occupykingsfordsmith. Solidarity from UK. Your fight is our fight. ]

  5. Dovif, the times, they are a changing, The 99% are waking up to the corporate pea-and-thimble acts, and the mendacious arguments, when it comes to seeing their jobs wages and conditions stripped at the hand of the corporates (the 1%)
    Especially when these corporates, despite their crying poor, double their profits over a year and their CEO’s being awarded 70% pay increases.
    That era, that you espouse is coming to an end.

  6. [@marshall_amelia
    Amelia Marshall
    Now we will be hearing qantas evidence for an hour and a half and then adjourning until later today/Sunday #qantas]

  10. Socrates

    Quite simply, Joyce want the federal government to step in.

    When 80,000 travellers had had their plane cancelled, delayed, because of union action, and the Gilard government had sat on their hands to do nothing about it, which is costing Qantas millions already. The only action Joyce can do is force the government to act.

    And they had finally act. and by tomorrow Qantas will not be able to lock out their staff and Unions won’t be able to strike, which is what Joyce really wants

    Do you really think Joyce wants to lose billions a day by grounding all flights, they still have to pay $300 a nnight for each passenger grounded, and all the flight meal they orders, all the lending slots they already paid for

    This move from Joyce have one motive, and that is to force the Government to get off its ass

  11. [Rhett Bartlett
    Sky News reporting no decision to be made by Fair Work Australia until later on Sunday. #QANTAS
    1 minute ago via HootSuite]

  18. dovif

    What apologist nonsense. There are any number of means Joyce could have gotten into court with the unions if he notified them of a dispute. He (Joyce) deliberately chose the most damaging route. No industrial action by the unions in the past six months has resulted in this number of planes being grounded; not even close. The unions are representing permanent employees. If Joyce wants to move to a casual workforce, then he has to pay them out with their legal entitlements. Anything else is unlawful.

  21. Why do you think Qantas’ market had dropped, profit had dropped and share price had dropped.

    Are you genuinely asking? I think Qantas’s market share, profit and share price have all dropped because of a series of poor management decisions, a fundamental misunderstanding of the competitive advantages that Qantas has historically had (public good will, belief in the brand, a reputation for safety above all else, Australian sentimentality both in Australia and overseas).

    As for Virgin’s use of casual labour, do you blame them for using labour that they can get rid of anytime they want

    Did you miss the part from the quote where Virgin obviously has a higher cost structure than Qantas in that area of operations, but Virgin is not pursuing a strategy of cutting wages and conditions. Virgin remains in the game, and actually appears to have some of longer term viability which Qantas, apparently by Alan Joyce’s own prounouncements, lacks. What could be going on? Could it be that Virgin are simply being smarter, making better strategic decisions, understanding their market, providing a product that people want?

  22. dovif,

    My understanding is all Joyce/ QANTAS or the unions had to do was ask the government to intervene and under the FWA that would have been enough.

    So to say that Joyce has done this simply to get the government to act is a bit of a over reach.

    Those with more knowledge than me re the FWA may correct me if I am wrong.

  24. dovif you are arguing long and loud about this. What is your point? That the libs think that Government intervention in private enterprise is the best way to solve industrial disputes?

  25. cud chewer,

    Didn’t catch the whole thing but in the last cross to Lyndal she said wtte that she had been approached by the government about misreporting and she duly corrected. I think she said that she had said that they had done something which they hadn’t.

    Sure to get a bit of a guernsey in the press, somewhere. Or maybe not.

  26. Dovif’s comments make me think of an interesting political dimension to this. The Qantas management decision is so obviously unpopular that anyone taking an anti-union stance is going to damage themselves. I’d say there are at least 80,000 votes at stake here, just for starters.

    This story has a very high international profile. Lead item on BBC news:
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15504838

    Nick Xenephon describes Qantas management as “militant”
    http://www.theage.com.au/business/qantas-has-militant-management-xenophon-20111029-1mpmp.html

    I think Alan Joyce has a kangaroo loose in the top paddock.

  27. on other news…

    [GhostWhoVotes GhostWhoVotes
    QLD state LNP MP Shane Knuth is defecting to Katter’s @ausparty. #qldpol #auspol
    3 minutes ago ]

  29. Here’s my summary..

    Joyce wants to make Qantas essentially a low cost (low wage) asian carrier but keep the Qantas brand.

    Joyce could continue to run Qantas with present wages and conditions profitably. But he wants to make lots more profits.

    The pilots want Qantas to use Australian trained pilots and keep some vital conditions such as not letting pilots actually be captain until they have gained a lot of real experience in actual Qantas planes (I forgot the exact number of flight hours but it was mentioned on Plane Talking)

    This Joyce sees as unacceptable because he believes that’s nothing to do with ‘wages and conditions’. In other words its a ‘management perogative’.

    Have I got it so far?

    Are there any unreasonable claims being made by the unions? So far I’ve not encountered much. Joyce said today that they want a pay according to age condition.. but is he bending the truth here? Is what he’s really referring to is flight experience?

    What it simply boils down to is Qantas as we know it won’t exist if he gets his way. Not that I have any problem with cheap carriers, but if I’m flying real long distances it actually matters to me the guy in the seat up the front knows what he’s doing.

  31. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/i-told-ryan-of-secret-summit/story-fn7x8me2-1226180533393

    [Police Minister, MP at odds over Sir Ken testimony
    by: Peter Rolfe From: Sunday Herald Sun October 30, 2011 12:00AM

    BANISHED MP Bill Tilley has broken his silence to stand by his evidence that he told Police Minister Peter Ryan about his secret meeting with former deputy chief commissioner Sir Ken Jones.

    “I stand by everything I said under oath,” Mr Tilley told the Sunday Herald Sun yesterday, when asked to respond to public denials from Mr Ryan.

    Mr Tilley – who last week resigned as a parliamentary secretary after the release of the Office of Police Integrity report into the police crisis – insisted his testimony under oath that he informed Mr Ryan of the May 14 meeting was correct.]

    More in the article.

  32. [Mick Collins
    can you show me how Qantas doubled their profit last year]

    yeah, is this good enough ?

    [SYDNEY (APOnline) – Qantas Airways said Wednesday it more than doubled annual profit to 250 million Australian dollars ($263 million) but warned the business environment is too challenging to forecast earnings for the coming year.
    http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/story/2011-08-24/Qantas-doubles-annual-profit-to-263-million/50119998/1%5D

    So much for your “oh but they’re so uncompetitive with OS Airlines” schtick, eh ?
    Frankly if they can double their annual profit withing the space of a year, if they can afford to pay their CEO a 70% pay rise, then they can afford to pay their workers a wage rise to keep up with cost of living rises.
    Like the rest of the 1% Joyce and their rent-seeking acolytes, like you, are bullshyting us with no more than bluster.
    And people like you wonder why the #occupy movement is growing

  34. [Dovif’s comments make me think of an interesting political dimension to this. The Qantas management decision is so obviously unpopular that anyone taking an anti-union stance is going to damage themselves. I’d say there are at least 80,000 votes at stake here, just for starters.]

    Exactly. This is the kind of issue that will rally the “blokes”.. same guys that get stirred up by the clubs and pubs crap, and the anti mining tax ads.. and so on. A lot of blue collar guys who also get whipped up into a frenzy over boat people would quickly forget the issue when confronted with a real bread and butter issue like union bashing.

    Please.. more Reith on tv!

  39. [

    tran_andyAndy Tran

    by katedoak

    News: #Jetstar massively jacks up airfares in the wake of the #Qantas grounding. One-way flights from Melbourne to Sydney now $329!

    14 minutes agoFavoriteRetweetReply]

    Guess who the parent comanpy of Jetstar is ?

  40. I just love how you guys jjust blames the Busines every chance you get and don’t really understand why

    Why has Qantas market share fallen from 60% to 33%, the reason is the Australian people, we prefer to pay 1000 to fly to LA with Singapore/US Ariline rather then 1200 Qantas

    We prefer to fly Virgin/Ethiad/Emirates whose profit goes overseas rahter then fly Qantas. That is the reason, we do not want to pay more for Qantas’ staff

    When Qantas loses 50% of their market, so should we expect them to lay off 50% of their staff? no we expect they to continue to employ everyone and make them more expensive, so we will not fly them in the future

    Qantas is losing market, because their cost is higher and we Australia have no problems flying all the other airlines. If you have flew iverseas on a non Qantas aircraft, look at yourself in the mirror when you want to lay blame

  43. You know Australian leads the world in industrial relations. Has done for more than a century. Most countries can only dream about having an independent umpire that can be called on a Saturday afternoon to sit through the night to support resolution of a serious industrial issue. The most important part is the ability to conciliate and if that doesn’t work – arbitrate. In many countries, the US included, industrial disputes drag on and cause huge social dislocation. We don’t appreciate how lucky we are.

    Of course it is the Liberal plan to dismantle all that and just have a free for all – UNLESS it is a Labor government and then it is their job to fix it immediately – of course.

  46. On the defection, I noticed that The Australian took a more anti katter line recently (not that there aren’t grounds to critise some of what he says & does). No wonder with the KAP threatening LNP seats in QLD. Now with this they will go even more beserk.

  49. Dovif, qantas, is losing market share cause they are a shytely managed airline.
    Its got nothing to do with their “Costs”.
    We, the 99% are becoming a lot more savvy on how corporates operate, and we are not to be conned any more

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