Essential Research: Labor too soft on refugees

This week’s Essential Report comes in with the primaries running 43/39 to Labor (unchanged), washing out into a two party preferred of 54/46 the same way – again, unchanged from last week. The Greens were up 1 to 10 while the broad “Others” were steady on 9 (with rounding errors adding everything up to 101%). This came from a rolling two week sample of 1900, giving us an MoE that maxes out around the 2.2% mark.

Additional questions this week focus on the asylum seekers, house prices, the Australian economy and workplace staffing. These additional questions run of a sample of 1009, giving us an MoE that maxes out around the 3.1% mark.

Do you think the Federal Labor Government is too tough or too soft on asylum seekers or is it taking the right approach?

On the cross-tabs, we have:

Labor voters were more likely to think the Government is taking the right approach (31%), Coalition voters were more likely to think the Government is being too soft (90%) and Green voters were more likely to think the approach is too tough (24%).

56% of Labor voters and 25% of Green voters think the Government is being too soft on asylum seekers.

18 – 24 year olds were more likely to think the Government is taking the right approach (29%), while people aged 55 years and over were more likely to think the Government is too soft on asylum seekers (76%).

Males were more likely than females to think the Government is being too soft (69% v 62%).

When we asked a similar question in April last year, we found that 55% thought the Government was being too soft on asylum seekers, 26% thought the Government’s approach was about right and 4% thought the Government was too tough.

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Which party would you trust most to handle the issue of asylum seekers?

On the cross-tabs we have:

Results followed party lines – Labor voters were more likely to trust Labor (46%) and Coalition voters were more likely to trust Liberal (77%).

Green voters were more likely to trust Labor when it comes to handling the issue of asylum seekers (38%).

34% of Labor voters think there is no difference when it comes to which party they trust to handle the issue.

People aged 55 years and over were more likely to trust the Liberal party to handle the issue (49%), while those aged 18 – 24 were more likely to trust Labor (38%).

In November 2009, we asked people which party they think is best to handle the issue of asylum seekers. We found that 23% thought Labor, 27% thought Liberal and 37% thought ‘no difference’ in terms of which party would be best to handle the issue.

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Thinking about housing prices, which of the following is mainly responsible for the increase in Australian house prices?
And which is the second most responsible?

Essential tells us on the cross tabs:

Coalition voters were more likely to think overseas buyers are mainly responsible for the increase in Australian house prices (22%), while Green voters were more likely to think Australian investors are mainly responsible.

People aged 35 – 44 were more likely to think low interest rates are most responsible (17%), people aged 45 – 54 think a shortage of housing is most responsible (40%), while those aged 65 years and over think that overseas buyers are most responsible for the increase in housing prices (26%).

Females were more likely to indicate overseas buyers are mainly responsible (23%), while males were more likely to point to a shortage of housing as mainly responsible for increased house prices (39%).

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Do you personally want house prices to increase, decrease or stay the same?

The cross-tabs tell us:

Coalition voters were more likely to want house prices to increase (36%) while Green voters were more likely to indicate they want house prices to decrease (49%). 37% of Labor voters want house prices to decrease.

People aged 18 – 24 were more likely to want house prices to decrease (56%), those aged 25 – 34 were more likely to want house prices to increase (37%) and those aged 55 years and over were more likely to want prices to stay the same (40%).

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Over the last 12 months, has the business you work for cut back on staff, increased staff or have staffing levels stayed much the same?

Short cross-tabs inform us that: “There were no substantial differences in terms of public or private workplaces; however people employed in the public sector were slightly more likely than those in the private sector to indicate there has been a cut back on staff in their workplace (29% v 25%).”

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How important are each of the following for Australia to have a strong economy?

With the cross-tabs, we have:

Labor voters were more likely to think that increased wages for workers are very important for Australia to have a strong economy (36%).

Coalition voters were more likely to think that a reduction in Government spending (48%), increasing in share prices (23%) and increased company profits (22%) are very important for Australia to have a strong economy.

There were no substantial differences amongst the various demographic groups.

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Do you think the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is spending too much time on activities not related to his job as Opposition Leader?

The cross-tabs tell us:

Labor voters were more likely to think Tony Abbott is spending too much time on activities not related to his job (50%), while Coalition voters were more likely to think he is not spending too much time on activities not related to his job (76%).

People aged 55 years and over were more likely to think Abbott is not spending too much time on activities not related to his job (53%), as were males (49%).