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 3 of 17
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  1. victoria:

    [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.]

    I think there’s some Unhinging happening amongst the journos too. Abbott was supposed to be the ‘conventional wisdom’: the easily digestible slogans (he was once a journalist you know!), the conviction politician, the unlikely winner who came from so far behind, but fell at the final hurdle. It’s as if the conventional fairy tale ending has been denied the media.

    If Labor go on to win in 2013, can you imagine the Unhinging then, after all the ‘they’re gone’, ‘Abbott is the next PM’ type articles we’ve been seeing since the CT announcement?

  2. confessions

    It is probably wishful thinking on my part, but I could never see Abbott as PM. I dont see what the journos see. Apart from Tingle, tnat is. So far she has been the only one that has articulated anything close to what is the reality.

  4. GG

    I am with you on Reith. I tend to think it is a ruse too. Unless Reith wants Abbott deposed as leader. There are some machavillean plots being played out behind the scenes.

  6. Greensborough Growler

    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.]

    That’s an interesting perspective.

    It is good to see though that a former prominent Tory is attacking Abbott whenever he can find an issue.

    Also, Reith getting his snout in the media will serve as a reminder of WorkChoices.

    Overall I don’t think Abbott would be happy with Reith, as his carping gives rise to a perception of disunity.

  8. confessions

    i know. What I meant was that he was the only other voice that has been very critical of Abbott. I cant really think of anyone else. Can you?

  10. Why can’t I find a video or newsclip on ABC of the joint press conference between Pm Cameron and PM Gillard? There’s a transcript of it on the official CHOGM site? Why aren’t the comments relevant to carbon pricing seen everywhere on OZ news. Or am I missing them somehow? I want to link it so I can finish my post at http://polliepomes.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/royal-blush/

    Never mind – here’s the pome, anyway. I’ll finish my commentary later.

    Royal Blush?

    Could Tony Abbott have predicted
    A time he’d ever be conflicted
    Twixt loyalties rightly his Queen’s
    Or Crown Casino’s poker machines?

    Asked that question about a year ago
    He would for sure have answered, “No!”
    But then hurt pride and thwarted ambition
    Hadn’t yet goaded him to near sedition.

    Wondering how to please James Packer,
    He dreamed up what he thought a cracker
    Of a stunt. A promo for strip poker!
    He’d be hailed an Ace! Our own Oz Joker!

    Front page pix of Tony Abbott’s arrest
    Reveal much more than his hairy chest.
    Notorious now as the ‘CHOGM gate crasher’
    He’s certified; the world’s most famous flasher.

    Mad for power and media attention,
    He broke every constitutional convention.
    His defence? He was irrational, confused,
    Unaware Her Majesty was not amused.

  11. [ This little black duck
    Posted Friday, October 28, 2011 at 11:12 pm | Permalink

    What have the Greeks ever done for us?
    ]

    Well they certainly are not happy chappies.

    Just beware of bearing gifts to Greeks –

    [ One would think that considering that their debt, or rather about 60% of it, was haircut over the past 2 days, the Greeks would be grateful to Germany who not only orchestrated this transaction over the vocal protests of her French vertically challenged counterpart, but effectively has pledged a substantial portion of German GDP to preserve not only the Greek welfare state but soon that of all the other European countries.

    One would be wrong.

    Greeks angry at the fate of the euro are comparing the German government with the Nazis who occupied the country in the Second World War.

    Newspaper cartoons have presented modern-day German officials dressed in Nazi uniform, and a street poster depicts Chancellor Angela Merkel dressed as an officer in Hitler’s regime accompanied with the words: ‘Public nuisance.’

    She wears a swastika armband bearing the EU stars logo on the outside.

    …And German visitors flocking to ancient tourist sites are being met with a hostile welcome from some Greeks]

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/adolf-merkel-presenting-greek-gratitude-50-debt-haircut

    Greece hasn’t even been paying the interest on its own loans, the EU has, as per the AFR recently –

    [ Loans from the IMF & EU are allowing the Greek Government to run primary budget deficits. The Greeks are paying about 5 % of GDP as interest to its bond holders, but these payments are funded by new IMF & EU Loans.

    The IMF & EU are also making additional new loans worth an extra 2% of GDP to finance new Greek Government spending. The plan was that Greece would reach the point where it could balance its tax and spending, excluding interest repayments over the next year or two, but Greece is way behind and getting deeper into debt.

    If Greece broke ties with the IMF & EU it would need to cut spending by 2 – 3% on top of what the IMF & EU are now demanding as it is cannot borrow on financial markets.
    ]

    Greece will still default after getting as much as they can from the rest of Europe.

  12. A moderately hysterical article in the AFR today on CEO remuneration/”2 strikes shareholder votes”. The article uses typical weasal language – “anyone predicted”, “small group” – to subtely undermine the credibility of the negative case.
    [Business fears new Labor laws giving shareholders power to block pay rises will allow a minority to control the agenda…

    Instead, the shareholder response has been more savage than anyone predicted…

    A small group of very active super and fund managers are driving the protest votes on the advice of proxy advisers…

    The qustion is whether the forceful opponents in business of the new law regain the initiatve or whether they will be forced to accept the arguments that investors are the true owners of their companies, not the directors or the management]
    I think the last quoted comment is truely astonishing: is this really a question? Yet to my mind it reveals a lot of the problem. The reality (ie facts, rather than generalised hysteria) is that most AGMs are occuring without any major issues on the remuneration report/2 strikes (even Qantas’). In my view, a rather big part of the issue is actually the chairman of these companies, who are even less accountable than the CEOs, who sanctimoniously see themselves as beyond reproach, whereas actually there are some very very average chairman of Australian listed companies – indeed there are pictures of some on the front page of the AFR today!

  14. [I think there’s some Unhinging happening amongst the journos too. Abbott was supposed to be the ‘conventional wisdom’: the easily digestible slogans (he was once a journalist you know!), the conviction politician, the unlikely winner who came from so far behind, but fell at the final hurdle. It’s as if the conventional fairy tale ending has been denied the media.

    If Labor go on to win in 2013, can you imagine the Unhinging then, after all the ‘they’re gone’, ‘Abbott is the next PM’ type articles we’ve been seeing since the CT announcement?]

    Not to mention how they’ll be able to tell the story about how it all started when Labor ‘knifed’ Kevin Rudd… but yes, it’ll surely be something to see. The only way it won’t be glorious is if they just immediately shift the dates again. (‘She won this time, but what about next election?”)

  17. [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]

    They have a lot of their own self-inflated reputations invested in being right this time, because they were so wrong about last time.

    That Hartcher can write about how miserable and fed-up Australians – from kiddies to grown ups – are with the hung parliament and federal politics in general and mention Abbott’s name only twice – merely topping and tailing his piece with it – shows how badly he is infected with the Coalition Love Virus.

    Abbott’s intention is to make the hung parliament appear to be chaotic and unworkable. Anyone who denies that is a fool, or worse.

    The opposite is true… apart from the Immigration Amendments, everything has gone through for the government. Nothing Abbott has proposed has survived a division. Hardly anything has been brought even past procedural votes.

    Yet Hartcher persists with this concept that both sides are as bad as each other. They’re both causing trouble and misery, when it is just not true.

    The government can’t expect a free ride with a compliant opposition agreeing with everything they say, but by the same token Abbott is on a wrecking mission, pure and simple.

    There is no need for the filibustering they inflict in parliament with their points of order, calls for quorums, motsions to suspend, contesting every vote with a division. The only effect any of this has is to makethe parliament close (but not close enough, thankfully) to unworkable.

    Then Abbott gets his mates in the media to write it up as if he has hardly anything to do with it.

    Two casual mentions in an article by a “senior” writer on why the hung parliament doesn’t work is not what Abbott’s path of destruction merits.

    A cople of volumes maybe, but that would require effort.

    Hartcher, like many of his “senior” colleagues loves levering a tiny happenstance into a symbol for what’s wrong with a {government|nation|party|parliament}. It gives the impression that they can see significance in things that ordinary people can’t. Only the commentariat is in tune to the subtleties of te national discourse. Only the “senior” writers can pick up these things from seemingly trivial evants.

    So today he takes some kids in a speed-speechmaking competition and morphs it into Australia-wide despair., saying people are fed up with the hung parliament.

    I am certain Hartcher is fed up with it too. With a hung parliament writers and commentators need to do some work. They need to actually pay some attention to the arguments, the debate, and report that to their readers.

    A majority parliament, with easy wins every vote for the government, only needs lip service to be paid to the issues or the debate, and then the media can get on with the belly-fluff examination of who’s up whose arse (aka “the politics”).

    Being constantly criticised for being lazy – from writing article about CHOGM that do not list one single issue discussed there (relying on Mae West to save the day, in Tony Wright’s case), to todays miserable effort by Hartcher, morphing kid’s games into the national discourse – can get you all depressed. No wonder they want the hung parliament to go away. Just as polls and Rudd Struts are a substitute for serious policy analysis, a majority parliament is a substitute for having to think and adapt to current circumstances and actually do some work.

    Is Hartcher calling for a new election because everyone – i.e. the one who voted for it – is pissed off about the hung parliament. He doesn’t seem to be in his article.

    So why doesn’t he just STFU and get on with doing his job, and quit moaning about how dreadful everything is?

    Bone lazy… there’s your answer.

    Bone Lazy.

  22. BB – I appreciate your dissection of Hartcher’s article today. I read it with amazement at Hartcher’s ability to make JG responsible for the ‘failure’ of minority government when many of us actually think it’s working pretty well.

    Somebody send that piece viral on twitter, please.

    Patricia – absolutely love your poems and also those of other clever Bludgers.

  23. [rishane

    The only story the journos should be telling is how Abbott got tne chop!]

    Yep! 🙂 I imagine in that case said journos will deny their role in propping Abbott up for so long.

  24. William why not. Have other polls u know about always its a good read
    Instead these. Other polls front and center all the time, also gives us something to talk about

    Thank you for your amazing dedication

  25. I don’t wanna go into detail because BB already dissected it so well, but the ending of that Hartcher editorial is astonishing.

    [But as even the school kids now seem to think, the populism and lack of policy ambition in post-Rudd Australia that led to the debacle of the 2010 election and the minority government experiment has led to a fast-hardening verdict that the conduct of both leaders and all parties is damnable.

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/minority-government-is-on-the-nose-20111028-1moih.html#ixzz1c8G7veGx
    ]

    Is he living in a parallel universe or something? I seriously don’t get where he gets the idea that Labor now has no policy or ambition but was apparently full of the stuff when Kevin Rudd was PM.

  26. theirabc reporting the 2bill loss on the future fund

    wtte

    the future fund,started by the HOWARD GOVERNMENT, lost 2 billion dollars in the september quarter

    they just cant frigging help ’emselves

    🙁

  31. I wonder if it’s worth making a submission to the media inquiry about our hopeless parliamentary press gallery, and how it no longer functions in the public interest. You could cite egs from other countries like the US, in which media outlets utilise niche and specialist correspondents to report on political matters (defense, Congress, the White House etc).

  35. [Is he living in a parallel universe or something?]

    200+ bills have passed through parliament. Harther’s observations are just another example of the irrelevency of the press gallery.

    We are very poorly served by the media in this country.

  36. [$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?]

    C’mon, Pegasus. Of course I can. I’m from a big family; my parents were poor, and most of the spare money went on our education. Have done in the past (as did most of the population) during the very broke years of full-fee uni, finishing the house + heavy mortgage repayments & bills (+ very high interest rates & taxation). Could do even now if I had to!

    The assumptions of that article is that a person living on Newstart with rent assistance lives alone. Well, they don’t! I live in a rural area where literally many thousand apprentices, TAFE & Uni students live while attending classes etc. TAFE & USQ have people who find, arrange & monitor accommodation; even part-time work – letter boxing businesses are forever dropping little cards in my box because they can’t get enough takers, even though it pays well!

    Young people share houses, flats, board in private homes. Some of the really broke still sleep in sleeping bags on the floor – as young & broke students/ youth etc have for at least the 55 years I remember visiting such rellies & friends. Did it myself in my late teens-early 20s. Part of the fun of having left home, being independent and enjoying life before ‘settling down’ to marriage etc.

    As for $16.50 each to cover food etc – that (minus accommodation) is more than OH & I allowed ourselves OS last year; more (at its equivalent value) than we did on any OS trip: Hello, early Frommer’s guides starvation budget: UK, Europe etc on $10/ 15/ 20 a day (inc accommodation).

    How d’y think ‘Spaghetti Liner’ (1950s-70s) Aussies like Barry Humphries (& Bazza Mackenzie) & tens of thousands of others managed long rite of passage trips OS if it wasn’t on ‘starvation budgets’ and low-paid work locals regarded as above them? Ever heard any of them decry their 12+ in an Earl’s Court bedsit youth? Of course not! They had a ball – at least doing what they remember!

    I might be a Leftie, but not a ‘Bleeding heart’. Lefties believe in the dignity of work (even if it’s undignified work like ‘dunny-cleaning’ – someone has to do it) I expect people to WORK for a living. Maybe that’s hard in small rural towns; but in a big city there are endless paid jobs: letterboxing, spruiking for shops/ eateries/ entertainment, cleaning jobs (inc ‘gross’ ones) – the well-worn doing the sort of jobs Aussies won’t do that started many an impoverished migrant’s fortunes.

    We have labour shortages! People just need the initiative to get off their backsides, find a job/ jobs, and move. If there’s a valid reason they can’t (special needs, being a carer) then they’re getting more that the ‘job-start’ allowance – so there are no excuses.

  40. [I might be a Leftie, but not a ‘Bleeding heart’. Lefties believe in the dignity of work (even if it’s undignified work like ‘dunny-cleaning’ – someone has to do it) I expect people to WORK for a living. Maybe that’s hard in small rural towns; but in a big city there are endless paid jobs: letterboxing, spruiking for shops/ eateries/ entertainment, cleaning jobs (inc ‘gross’ ones) – the well-worn doing the sort of jobs Aussies won’t do that started many an impoverished migrant’s fortunes.

    We have labour shortages! People just need the initiative to get off their backsides, find a job/ jobs, and move. If there’s a valid reason they can’t (special needs, being a carer) then they’re getting more that the ‘job-start’ allowance – so there are no excuses.
    ]

    You will now be classified as being in lock step with the Liberal Party.

    That is how Her Equiness operates.

  43. Bushfire Bill:
    I don’t know that it is a case of laziness, I think the gallery are a cosy little club that all follow the same path. Tingle has blatantly broken away from it this week – as opposed to tinkering around the edges – and it will be interesting to see if any follow. I suspect it will depend on how much ‘gravitas’ Tingle has within the political gallery community.

    Andrew Elder commented on the ‘cachet’ one gets amongst the profession if you’re in the Canberra press gallery. I think when you combine that with Jay Rosen’s notion of ‘savviness’ you’re getting close to having an overall picture as to why political commentary has become so resoundingly poor over the past decade. After all, there is plently of policy analysis that goes on outside of the gallery – a good deal of it we would argue here is of much higher value to voters due to depth of research and professional experience/knowledge of specialist areas. But the Canberra press gallery hold on tightly and dearly to the one thing they feel holds them apart from all other commentary – Albo’s and Pyne’s mobile numbers – i.e. personal contacts by virtue of being in the actual location where politicians are physically. It’s why our pages are full of the political crap rather than policy analysis, because that is the very last thing that the journos from the publications and broadcasters have that bloggers and other analysts can’t get their hands on: insider gossip.

    Here is a prime example of that last bastion – an exchange between a concerned citizen and a journo, Phil Coorey, over the media ridiculousness on whether Rudd’s silence on poker machine reform meant something or other about leadership:

    [@PhillipCoorey Phillip Coorey
    Don’t blame me fella. We don’t tell ’em how to behave

    @mrumens Marian Rumens
    @PhillipCoorey Kevin Rudd had a heavy cold and he was 100% concentrated on CHOGM and journo asks him a gotcha on pokies,Some story.

    @PhillipCoorey Phillip Coorey
    @mrumens you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. I am here, you are not]

    And there you have it. All you concerned citizens and critics are wrong because my employer pays for my airfare. I have Albo’s number and you don’t, therefore anything I have to say has gravitas and you’re just some schmuck sitting at a keyboard. The problem for these press gallery journos is that there is a growing number of experts and people with policy expertise that are now making their voices heard. They are writing blogs that are now gaining a much wider audience by getting published by Big Readership domains like the ABC via The Drum, and day by day we are seeing that the ruminations and ‘analysis’ provided by the gallery are looking more and more hollow. No wonder they get defensive.

  44. Can someone please make sure Hartcher gets to see BBs powerful critique. Anyone copping a barrage like that could not help but take it on board – and that’s just what we need at the moment, journalists being held accountable.

  46. peg

    $10 does a dinner for four. That’s my budget. (Last night I splashed a bit; the noodles & stir fry I cooked cost $4 for noodles, $5 for meat and $4 for vegies. Special occasion). So dinner (my share) $4 if I’m being extravagant.

    Breakfast – porridge – would cost less than $1, even factoring in milk and sugar.

    Lunch: usually leftovers, so part of the dinner budget. Occasionally ravioli. We wait until it’s being sold cheap, as it’s out of date: never pay more than $2 to feed 2. Add the cheese, and let’s call lunch $2.

    So three meals – filling, and enjoyable – $8 for one person for the day.

    A few snacks of fruit during the day (apples at present $1.70 a kilo, oranges 99 cents, so again, less than $1) and a couple of cups of coffee (we’ll use canteen prices and say $1 a pop) and I’ve still got change from $16.50.

    And yes, learnt how to live like that as a student.

  49. On the subject of living on less than $16.50 a day.

    For Sydneysiders (possibly elsewhere), Coles supermarkets close at midnight Mon-Sat.

    If you go there after 9pm, they often have some good perishables at knockdown prices.

    Last night I picked up a cooked and stuffed chook for $5. That equates to a couple of meals for singles, or one meal for a family of four.

    The thing I really look for is mince. Yes, that’s right good old fashioned mince.

    The last time I got some mince it was going for $6 a kilo.

    With mince there are endless varieties of meals you can make with it, for example:

    Stews/casseroles;
    Meatloaf;
    Pies;
    Curries;
    Chillis;
    Rissoles/burgers;
    Bolognese and other Italian foods;
    Good old fashioned mince and tatties;
    Others I can’t think of off the top of my head.

    A very versatile substance.

  50. poroti:
    Thanks for that link to Stephen Fry (although the one I went to first had him talking about adolescent boys and jizzing, but I found the correct one eventually!). He comes at it from the celebrity point of view, but it is along the same lines. The gallery journos are holding onto those contacts for dear life, but I suspect that before too long politicians will take on the same tack as Fry and use social media to get out their own pov without it being filtered.

    I think we are getting to the point where the use of ‘unnamed sources’, ‘senior govt sources’, and the like is viewed by the reader as a politician just using a journo to even a political score or to try and put forward a particular agenda. The journos have been beating themselves into a frenzy as more and more of the ‘political class’, i.e. the people whose opinions journos actually care about, switch off and regard it as the scuttlebutt and gossip that it is. Perhaps that is why the gallery are so obsessed about using polling numbers to justify what they’ve been writing – but I suspect they are a bit chagrined that the only people who are listening are people who don’t really care about politics anyway.

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