Australians are split as to whether they would prefer to head back to the polls following Saturday’s election, or if they would rather negotiations occur with minor parties and independents to form government.
A representative poll of 2,875 voters commissioned by The Australia Institute found 47% of voters preferred negotiations rather than calling another election. Slightly less, 46.3%, said “call another election”. The remaining 6.7% were undecided.
Of Coalition voters, 58.5% wanted to go back to the polls compared with 38.5% of Labor voters and 27.9% of Greens voters. Meanwhile, 36.7% of LNP voters, 52.1% of Labor voters and 66.9% of Greens voters would prefer negotiations to form government.
Asked if the Senate should pass, oppose or amend the Coalition’s $48bn company tax cuts proposal, 28.8% of respondents wanted the measure passed, 33.9% opposed it, while 27% wanted the proposal amended to allow tax cuts for small and medium businesses only.
The breakdown looked very different when looking at who the respondents voted for. Just 6.8% of Labor voters, as opposed to 54.4% of LNP voters, wanted the tax cuts passed, along with 9.9% of Greens voters.
The survey also asked voters about their support for a 50% renewable energy target by 2030, 58% of respondents supporting the policy and 24% opposed to it. Greens voters were most supportive of the target, at 92.7%, followed by 80.9% of Labor voters and 30.6% of LNP voters.
Along with the renewable energy target, there was strong support for Gonski needs-based funding for schools. While the Coalition proposes to cut some of this funding, 64% wanted current spending levels retained. Only 37.9% of LNP voters, compared with 84.9% of Labor voters, wanted to stop the cuts.
Meanwhile, a Morgan SMS poll of more than 1,000 people, conducted on Tuesday, found Malcolm Turnbull was preferred as prime minister by 51% of voters, compared with 47% who preferred Shorten. But Shorten’s popularity had surged by 23% since the last time the poll was conducted, in May, while support for Turnbull had dropped by 6%.
However, 71% of respondents preferred Turnbull over the previous prime minister, Tony Abbott, just 25% supporting Abbott as leader. Of LNP voters, 60% preferred Turnbull, compared with 38% who preferred Abbott.
However, the preferred leader of the Labor party was a different story. Among all voters, 49% preferred Anthony Albanese, compared with 48% who preferred the current opposition leader, Bill Shorten. However, Labor supporters preferred Shorten (64%), compared with Albanese (35%).
Albanese has ruled out contesting the Labor leadership in the wake of the election.
Of the ReachTel voters overall, 37.7% were Liberal voters, 4.6% were Nationals voters, 35% voted Labor and 10.6% voted for the Greens. The rest voted for other parties or independents.
