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 2 of 17
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  2. VICTORIA>>>>>
    Pell would have Abbott’s ear on EVERYTHING

    Abbott is an old-fashioned 1950ies Catholic of the right… in the pocket of the clergy…and an admirer of SANTAMARIA….of whom he never fails to speak admiringly…..more so than of Menzies….and Pell remember is the national chaplain of OPUS DEI….
    that’s about it!

  3. victoria:

    During Senate Estimates last week the appalling rate of suicides among indigenous Western Australians in the Kimberley was discussed. This is in addition to a spate of indigenous suicides in WA’s Wheatbelt town of Narrogin last year and the year before.

    Why do we never see or hear about that on the front page of our major newspapers?

  5. confessions

    Abbott’s pronouncements on pokies was a deliberate move. He would not have done so if he did not feel he has plenty of backing and support. I just get the feeling that Abbott has overlooked something. I sense some blowback for him down tne track.

  7. Just on the capacity of journos and newspapers to influence, and introducing paywalls, you won’t see a better eg of this than Laura Tingle’s column yesterday. Previously locked behind a paywall at the AFR, nobody discussed Tingle’s articles.

    But yesterday, now free from the paywall, in addition to seeing her column circulated widely on twitter, it was cited in at least one blog post yesterday, and is quoted in Ben Eltham’s column for ABC’s The Drum.
    http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3606270.html

    This is why I’ve been keen for the OO blowhards to be paywalled: they will become irrelevent, as the way in which the internet is used as a communication and sharing tool is anathema to the concept of paywalling. It can’t come soon enough in my view.

  8. [confessions

    Posted Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 9:24 am | Permalink

    victoria:

    During Senate Estimates last week the appalling rate of suicides among indigenous Western Australians in the Kimberley was discussed. This is in addition to a spate of indigenous suicides in WA’s Wheatbelt town of Narrogin last year and the year before.

    Why do we never see or hear about that on the front page of our major newspapers?
    ]

    Our Blackfellas don’t sell newspapers – Muslim ones do.

    Crass but true.

  9. poroti

    Howard decided – to demonstrate that he wasn’t anti science – to launch a program to bring home some of Australia’s best and brightest.

    The speech read wtte ‘…5 scientists every year for 5 years…’ (a total of 25).

    Howard said ‘….25 scientists every year for 5 years…” (remember he always avoided reading from notes).

    So we got 125 scientists. Each package was worth around $250k a year.

    No one complained, of course.

  10. [Did you see that at a rock concert last night Rudd told the crowd that today “We will announce, in conjunction with Bill Gates, a program to rid this planet of polio”?]

    BK, The Age (24 October) published a joint Gillard-Gates World Polio Day article<Eradicating polio will pay big dividends. it wasn’t widely picked up at the time.

    That’s now changed – one suspects because it may be used to fuel Ruddstoration fires, even though “Oz using CHOGM to win a UN Security Council seat” has just been resurrected – so why the hell would Rudd be planning a tilt at the PMship when that’s still a possibility? BTW, the Polio initiative is a Foreign Aid one, therefore a Foreign Policy initiative, therefore Rudd’s portfolio … not that our pathetic MSM let truth stand in the way of Ruddstoration ‘beat ups’ – or anything else for that matter.

  11. Frank I just read about your brave mp.

    Truly hope and pray she finds the cure, so she can continue her work here,
    So young, with so much to give

  13. [OzPol Tragic

    Posted Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 9:36 am | Permalink

    Did you see that at a rock concert last night Rudd told the crowd that today “We will announce, in conjunction with Bill Gates, a program to rid this planet of polio”?

    BK, The Age (24 October) published a joint Gillard-Gates World Polio Day article<Eradicating polio will pay big dividends. it wasn’t widely picked up at the time.

    That’s now changed – one suspects because it may be used to fuel Ruddstoration fires, even though “Oz using CHOGM to win a UN Security Council seat” has just been resurrected – so why the hell would Rudd be planning a tilt at the PMship when that’s still a possibility? BTW, the Polio initiative is a Foreign Aid one, therefore a Foreign Policy initiative, therefore Rudd’s portfolio … not that our pathetic MSM let truth stand in the way of Ruddstoration ‘beat ups’ – or anything else for that matter.
    ]

    This is the Perth Now story:

    http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/breaking-news/gillard-to-boost-global-fight-against-polio/story-e6frg12u-1226180124989

    BTW the Belvior Ampitheatre is a mere 10 -15 minutes from my place on Great Northern Highway.

  16. From a labor upperhouse member for the Eastern metro region as well as the opposition whip.

    [ShaunLeaneMP Shaun Leane
    How did Pete&Ted excellent adventure turn bogus so quickly-Wednesday their curtsying to the Queen Thursday their ducking for cover #springst
    2 minutes ago]

  19. Ta, Frank. How come you get 3 newspapers & Briz gets only a Murdoch Tabloid? Not Fair!

    Hope, for your sake, the ampihtheatre doesn’t do too many rowdy concerts of the type of muzak you don’t appreciate (in my case, schmaltz & Country & Western)!

  20. [

    Nic_HayesNic Hayes

    I now have an urge to go to Bunnings to get a snag because I cannot have one with the Queen today!

    6 minutes agoFavoriteRetweetReply

    in reply to ↑

    @PeterTaliangisPeter Taliangis

    @Nic_Hayes all the bunnings bbqs will be on the esplanade 🙂 #Queen #BBQueen #Perth

    1 minute agovia Twitter for iPhoneFavoriteRetweetReply]

  24. [Why is there a parliamentary press gallery? What is it for? It is an institution that has outlived its usefulness, and it is a symptom of mainstream media failure that they continue to focus on it as much as they do. ]

    Absolutely! Perhaps it’s fair to say the press gallery is as anachronistic as the monarchy.

  26. [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).]

    Both major parties and the MSM have been very successful in scapegoating and demonising the unemployed (aka ‘dole bludgers’ or, ‘welfare cheats’) over a long period of time.

    Recently, The Australia Institute conducted a research study designed to explore how the stigma of being on unemployment benefits influences what people think about what constitutes an adequate safety net. In a controlled experimental study, 1,034 Australians were asked one of two questions:

    1. How much money do you think a single adult living in Australia needs per week in order to meet the cost of living?

    2. How much do you think a single unemployed adult should receive per week from Centrelink?

    Read this summary to find out the monetary values placed in the two circumstances: https://www.tai.org.au/?q=node/404
    ————————————————————————————————-

    Partial re-posts:

    1. Beyond stereotypes: myths and facts about people of working age who receive social security, May 2011: http://acoss.org.au/images/uploads/beyond_stereotypes.pdf
    [In 2009 there were just over 2 million (2,081,000) people of working age on income support payments, including Newstart Allowance, Parenting Payment, Disability Support Pension and Carer Payment.

    This paper aims to move beyond the myths and stereotypes to take a closer look at who these two million people are and why it is that many have not found paid work, despite falling unemployment levels.]
    ————————————————————————————————-

    2. $16.50 is all that is left for a a person living on Newstart with rent assistance, and renting the cheapest accommodation on the fringes of Melbourne or Sydney.

    Could you live on $16.50 a day to cover food, transport, bills and looking for work?

    Toby Hall, chief executive of Mission Australia: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/meagre-dole-payment-doesnt-just-hurt-the-unemployed-20111019-1m7mb.html

  32. Pegasus

    A single young person who is an apprentice for eg, could not afford to live on tneir own. A function of society is that people co operate and support each other too. Sharing accommodation and expenses for eg. It is difficult for anyone starting out to be able to stand on tneir own feet without support. It is impossible to expect any govt to be able to do so.

  35. [MTBW

    Posted Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 10:28 am | Permalink

    Can’t take it when it comes back at you Frank? Only good at dishing it out eh?
    ]

    I can give as good as I get.

    you on the other hand…..

  36. Hartcher bangs on about minority government: all Gillard’s fault.
    Peter Hartcher mustn’t have been at the Press Club the day PMJG asked journos not to write crap. Because he’s written a lot of crap today.

    He takes a handful of finalists in a schoolies speed-speech contest – they had three words to discuss and three minutes to set their speeches – and turns it into a national malaise that is all Gillard’s fault.

    Was it her fault the House Of Reps seats came out even?

    According to Hartcher, “Yes”.

    Was it her fault she did a deal with the independents to form government, something any politician would have done if they could, and something any leader had a duty/i> to do?

    According to Hartcher, “Yes”.

    [The encroaching sense of national dismay is real.

    It’s partly about Gillard and the way that Labor has behaved in the past year-and-a-half; it’s partly about Abbott and the way that the Opposition has behaved; but it’s also a verdict that minority government has failed, that Australian politics has gone seriously wrong, and a craving for a return to “normal”.]

    http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/minority-government-is-on-the-nose-20111028-1moih.html#ixzz1c7PmaSbI

    Although Hartcher generously mentions Abbott as a “partner in crime”, the Wrecker From The Right hardly scores a mention after that in any meaningful way.

    I guess Peter thinks Tony is just doin’ what comes natcherly: Gillard creates the vacuum. Abbott fills it with shit. Julia’s fault… clearly.

    When the Reserve Bank Governor, Glenn Stevens, is mentioned, we have Hartcher tut-tutting that it is highly unusual for the RBA big wigs to cite grubby politics in economic speeches. That’s how serious it’s become.

    [Central bank governors avoid political commentary like the plague, so it was striking that “bitter” political debate had become so important and unavoidable a problem that he felt compelled to speak its name.]

    Never mind that it’s becoming so obvious that Abbott’s negativism, lies and distortions of the truth concerning the economy (and just about everything else) that the Governor thought he should mention it: it’s still all Gillard’s fault.

    I wonder what she was supposed to do, faced with the loss of office after the election? Hold another one? And another? Not deal with the Independents? Tell them to piss off with their petty gambling and green obsessions, she’d muddle through somehow? Just hand over to the Coalition after a tied vote, Gorton style?

    Hartcher cites – wait for it – focus groups research (the ones he usually bags the government for being addicted to) as showing…

    [… the kind of issues the politicians and the media are obsessed with are irrelevant, marginal or controversial. Not so much with carbon tax, but on pokies, asylum seekers and gay marriage, for example, – people can’t understand the disproportionate focus on issues that have nothing to do with their concerns, and they think it must be because of the Greens and independents.”]

    So why do you spend so much time writing about them, Hartcher?

    Gee, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Public and your snotty nosed X or Y or whatever kids: YOU voted for it. And now you don’t like it? What a shame! But we’ll never see Peter writing about that.

    The key phrase there is “they think it must be because of the Greens and independents.” Let’s suppose these policy areas are minor, and of little consequence. Who made these molehills into mountains?

    No mention is made, indeed no possibility is countenanced that the real blowfly in the Vegemite jar here might be the Lord of No himself, Abbott, and the sycophantic media (of whom Hartcher, by the way he talks about the media in the third person, is obviously not a member) out for cheap “controversy” thrills, who promote the Tonester’s every unhinged utterance as a pearl of wisdom, requiring equal acreage in the nation’s broadsheets alongside to the government’s policies.

    Was it Julia Gillard who made a blood oath? Was it Julia Gillard who went to Campbelltown Workers and “predicted” she’d repeal the pokies tax? Is it Julia Gillard, or anyone of her ministers who is pledging to tear the government and its record, all its legislation and any mention of its achievements down, stone by stone, and then sow the earth where it stood with salt… over the “marginal” issue of pokies?

    Is it the government that draws the Speakers attention to the state of the house every half an hour? Who refuses to solve the “marginal” issue of boat people by voting in favour of her own policy? Who then writes and makes speeches about it as if it was the second volume of When Worlds Collide?

    Who filibusters with pointless points of order? Who calls on emergency motions to suspend daily at 2.49pm (then whinges QT is useless)? Does Gillard sign-in members of the public to the Gallery so they can scream she is a “lying scrag”? Does she shout them lunch afterwards?

    Is it Gillard who makes a federal case out of a curtsy? Did she produce the TV show about her home life? Or bung on the national handwringing about whether her dog came from a puppy farm? Did she write a column about her own earlobes? Her fat arse? Thick ankles? Her raspy voice?

    Does she go around claiming that whole towns will turn to tumbleweeds? Whole industries be rendered obsolete? Does she claim that interest rates are constantly rising monthly when in fact they have been steady for a year, and are likely to fall on the anniversary of their last rise on Melbourne Cup day, and thus be lower than they were 8 years ago under the sainted Howard?

    Was it she who voted against the Queensland Flood levy? Offshore processing? The NBN? Did she go on shock jock radio and say that poor little boy from Xmas Island had no right to attend his mother’s funeral because he was a feral boatie costing us too much money?

    Was it she who managed to stuff up negotiations with the Independents? Did she falsify her election budget costings by $11 billion dollars and thus lose those negotiations?

    I don’t think so, Mr. Hartcher.

    To all these questions, Peter inserts one short paragraph and then lets sleeping dogs lie, pointing out…

    [… the other half of the problem – Abbott. “One of the reasons people are depressed is they have no confidence that the alternative would be any better.”]

    And that’s it for the Mucker In Chief, Tony Abbott and his gang of Merry Fossils.

    Hartcher recedes him back into the general background of whinge, whinge, whinge after that. He also (no surprise there) gives “the media” a general free pass on whether they had anything to do with amplifying every Abbott utterance into a nation-shattering initiative.

    He forgets to mention his own obsession with polls and predicting the certain result of an election from them, two years out. He absolves himself from blame for all the Ruddstoration bullshit he’s been pedalling for months, and still is.

    But even after all this, tucked away in the second last sentence of the article Peter lets something slip:

    [Even Abbott didn’t attempt to obstruct the budget. In 1975 satisfaction with democracy was 59 per cent; today it’s 73 per cent. And, as Ian McAllister points out, it’s still among the highest in the world.]

    All the angst and ennui, all that opprobrium from even the little ones during their speechmaking competition… yet satisfaction with democracy in Australia is “still among the highest in the world”.

    So much for a nation in despair, I guess.

    Postscript
    As my postscript, I cite Peter’s own postscript:

    [Clarification: In last week’s column I wrote that Tony Abbott had proposed to finance his paid parental leave policy with a new tax levy of 1.7 per cent on profits of big companies. He later changed this to a 1.5 per cent levy, which is the policy as it now stands.]

    Good old Pete, he’s big enough to amend a couple of decimal points, no doubt at the urgings of the local Lib Fact Checkers, but his mind is too small to admit the larger mistake: blaming both sides for the state of politics in Australia is not a zero sum game.

    One side is doing most of the damage. One side is deliberately going out of its way to cause mayhem and loss of faith in the economy, the government and governance itself in Australia.

    It is not Labor that is doing this.

    If Hartcher could bring himself to abandon his “pox on both their houses” attitude (and a few of his “senior” mates along with him) we might start to get a better handle on what’s really going on around the place, as Laura Tingle seems to have finally done and is now pleading for her colleagues to follow her.

    But I suspect Hartcher is too in love with his own dulcet tones and his pin-stripe image of himself, his positions as a leader of the commentariat for that to happen any time soon.

    In any case, if he’s prepared to issue an almost unheard-of retraction of a portion of his last article over a couple of percentage points in a sea of millions and billions of unsourced, unaccounted for dollars that comprise the Coalition’s “plan” for Australia, I suspect there’s not much hope for the bigger picture showing just how they are out to wreck Australia in order to save it.

  37. [Could you live on $16.50 a day to cover food, transport, bills and looking for work?]

    I have done myself, and know others who do so today.

  38. Primogeniture and the law banning Catholics ascending the throne coming to an overdue end:

    [A future daughter to Prince William and Princess Catherine could take the throne under a change to centuries-old laws.

    A meeting in Perth of the “realm” countries which have the Queen as their monarch, including Australia, has agreed to change the royal succession rules.

    British Prime Minister David Cameron has championed the change to the 1701 Act of Settlement, which would scrap rules that put a male child ahead of his older sister in the line to the throne, and bar anyone who marries a Catholic from the royal line of succession.

    “This way of thinking is at odds with the modern countries that we’ve all become,” he told reporters in Perth on Friday.

    “I’m very pleased to say we reached a unanimous agreement on two changes.”

    He said the British government would publish legislation first, before other realm countries.

    Prime Minister Julia Gillard said there was in-principle agreement from the Australian federal and state governments for the arrangements.

    “These things seem straightforward but just because they seem straightforward to our modern minds doesn’t mean we should underestimate their historic significance,” she said.

    Every state and the federal government will need to pass legislation to enact the changes.

    The royal succession rule change won’t affect Prince Charles or his son Prince William, both of whom are first-born children.

    The realms – nations whose head of state is Queen Elizabeth – include Australia, the UK, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Papua New Guinea, St Christopher and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Tuvalu, Barbados, Grenada, the Solomon Islands, St Lucia and The Bahamas.

    The British law barring Catholics was originally designed to prevent the return of the Catholic Stuarts to the throne.]

  39. [A single young person who is an apprentice for eg, could not afford to live on tneir own.]

    Neighbours have their grandson living with them while he does his apprenticeship as an electrician. His wage is appalling, but they know it’s a relatively short term sacrifice, for when he qualifies and is registered, he’ll be able to find secure, well-paying employment and will be able to support himself.

  41. Sorry about the italics in some wrong places. The lack of Preview sucks. But I had to get it off my chest. I checked that post as best I could.

  42. [confessions

    Posted Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 10:38 am | Permalink

    A single young person who is an apprentice for eg, could not afford to live on tneir own.

    Neighbours have their grandson living with them while he does his apprenticeship as an electrician. His wage is appalling, but they know it’s a relatively short term sacrifice, for when he qualifies and is registered, he’ll be able to find secure, well-paying employment and will be able to support himself.
    ]

    I thought today’s younger generation still live with their parents till their 30’s ?

    That’s what they say on TV.

  44. [Bushfire Bill

    Posted Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 10:40 am | Permalink

    Sorry about the italics in some wrong places. The lack of Preview sucks. But I had to get it off my chest. I checked that post as best I could.
    ]

    sign up to my blog and I’ll grant you author Status and you can write your own posts.

  45. confessions

    Precisely my point. There needs to be support for people within their own networks as well. It is impossible to rely totally on govt to get from a to b. I understand that there are some disenfranchised people in the community who have no one, but generally speaking, most have connections to family and friends. As a society, we need to support our nearest and dearest.
    My son is an apprentice electriician, and his income improves with experience. Yet, he could not afford at this stage to fund his own accommodation, travel expenses, food etc. As a parent, I can supoort him through this period until he becomes self sufficient.

  47. [

    ABC News
    On Insiders tomorrow morning, Barrie Cassidy interviews Trade Minister Craig Emerson.

    On the panel: the Financial Review’s Laura Tingle, the Australian’s George Megalogenis and the Sydney Institute’s Gerard Henderson.

    And Mike Bowers talks pictures with West Australian cartoonist Dean Alston.
    Like · · Share · 5 minutes ago ·

    ..
    .]

  48. BB

    Hartcher, like Some other journos, are pissed off that the govt has lasted so long. He was sure that there was going to be another election by Early Feb. Paul Kelly agreed with him. That was 9 months ago. How dare he be proved wrong

  50. charlton,

    I’m not sure that Abbott will be overly concerned about being attacked from the extreme right by the likes of Reith.

    Makes him appear as more of a centrist.

    It’s a ruse. I don’t trust any of these bastards.

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