Australians are worried that businesses will be put at risk if the Morrison government withdraws the wage subsidy jobkeeper prematurely and there is a substantial second wave of Covid-19 infections, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.
As the prime minister intensifies his signals that the income support the Coalition put in place for the coronavirus crisis is now on the way out, the new survey of 1,087 respondents shows 64% of the sample is concerned about how the withdrawal of the wages subsidy would sit with any second wave of the pandemic.
More than half the sample (53%) also believe the government broke a promise when it announced it was withdrawing jobseeker payments for childcare workers. A similar percentage (55%) think it is too soon to remove support when many children are not yet back in childcare, and just over half the sample (53%) are worried that jobkeeper will be removed from other industries before September.
Support for extending free childcare is also increasing. Last month 36% of the sample thought that needed to continue, and that’s now risen to 43%. Perhaps unsurprisingly, voters under 34 are more supportive of extending free childcare than respondents over 55 (52% to 35%).
But people are also worried about the scale of fiscal support, with 57% of the sample of the view that the government needs to withdraw help from some industries.
That mixed headspace can also be seen in responses to questions about the recent Black Lives Matters protests in major Australian cities.
The recent death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of police sparked protests in America and around the world. In Australia, tens of thousands of people took to the streets demanding an end to Indigenous deaths in custody, defying an attempt from the police to ban one demonstration through the courts, and despite pleas from the prime minister and state leaders to stay home.
A large majority of poll respondents (84%) this week were of the view that protests in the middle of a pandemic put the community at risk in Australia. But 62% also felt local protesters were justified in their demands for authorities to address the issue of Indigenous deaths in custody.
Consistent with the results of the Guardian Essential poll last week – which showed a significant majority of voters in the sample believed Americans were correct to demand better treatment for African Americans in their society, but only 30% believed there is institutional racism in Australian police forces – 61% of this week’s sample agreed with the statement: “The situation in America is very different to Australia and has no relevance.”
Views differed among voting cohorts. Men (67%), voters aged over 55 (64%) and Coalition voters (74%) were more likely to agree with the statement that things were different here compared to women (54%), voters aged under 35 (54%) and Labor and Greens voters (54% and 38%).
Voters in the sample were also asked questions this week about their attitude to the trade union movement, with unions now back at the table with the government discussing potential changes to labour market regulations post Covid-19.
A majority of the sample (60%) thought unions are very, or quite important for working people, which is similar to attitudes expressed back in 2015. Continuing with the mixed headspace in this week’s survey, 74% of the sample agreed that unions provided essential services to their members, but 62% also agreed that unions are too politically biased and more than half (58%) agreed that union protection makes it difficult for employers to discipline, terminate or even promote employees.
The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 3%.
With a review of the jobkeeper payment due in July, the government over the past couple of weeks is becoming more pointed in telling voters current income support has a finite shelf life.
With the bulk of the government’s $134bn of economic supports set to expire in September, Labor has stepped up pressure on the prime minister to explain what industry assistance will be provided if jobkeeper is withdrawn, and to create jobs for those on the jobseeker unemployment benefit.
On Monday, Morrison told parliament the government was not in a position to save every job lost in the economic shock associated with the pandemic. The prime minister says the government does not want to pursue “excessive austerity” as the support gets unwound, but has also warned it is neither “wise nor responsible” to continue stimulus spending.
