Q. As far as you know, do Tony Abbott and the Coalition support action to address climate change or are they opposed to taking any action?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | |
| Support action to address climate change | 36% | 27% | 59% | 31% |
| Are opposed to any action to address climate change | 33% | 47% | 17% | 48% |
| Don’t know | 29% | 26% | 24% | 21% |
Overall, respondents were divided over the position of Tony Abbott and the Coalition on climate change – 36% believe they support action to address climate change and 33% think are they opposed to taking any action.
Those that intend to vote Lib/Nat were far more likely to believe that Tony Abbott and the Coalition support action to address climate change (59%).
Those that intend to vote for Labor (47%) or the Green (48%) were more likely to state that Tony Abbott and the Coalition are opposed to any action to address climate change.
Males (42%) were more likely than females (34%) to state that Tony Abbott and the Coalition support action to address climate change.
Females (39%) were more likely than males (19%) to state ‘Don’t know.’
14
Approval of Tony Abbott
Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the job Tony Abbott is doing as Opposition Leader?
| 18 Jan | 29 Mar | 5 Jul | 16 Aug | 20 Sep | 18 Oct | 22 Nov | 20 Dec | 17 Jan 2011 | 14 Feb 2011 | |
| Total approve | 37% | 33% | 37% | 41% | 43% | 39% | 40% | 39% | 42% | 38% |
| Total disapprove | 37% | 50% | 47% | 44% | 37% | 45% | 40% | 39% | 37% | 46% |
| Strongly approve | 5% | 8% | 8% | 9% | 12% | 8% | 6% | 9% | 7% | 8% |
| Approve | 32% | 25% | 29% | 32% | 31% | 31% | 34% | 30% | 35% | 30% |
| Disapprove | 20% | 28% | 23% | 22% | 21% | 22% | 22% | 21% | 22% | 24% |
| Strongly disapprove | 17% | 22% | 24% | 22% | 16% | 23% | 18% | 18% | 15% | 22% |
| Don’t know | 26% | 16% | 16% | 15% | 19% | 17% | 19% | 22% | 20% | 16% |
38% (down 4%) approve of the job Tony Abbott is doing as Opposition Leader and 46% (up 9%) disapprove – a net change from last month of -13%
73% of Coalition voters approve and 15% disapprove.
By gender – men 43% approve/46% disapprove, women 34% approve/46% disapprove.
Q. Which of the following describe your opinion of the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott?
| 5 Jul 10 | 4 Oct 10 | 7 Feb 11 | Change | |
| Intelligent | 70% | 71% | 64% | -7% |
| Hard-working | 76% | 78% | 72% | -6% |
| A capable leader | 47% | 52% | 48% | -4% |
| Arrogant | 59% | 60% | 58% | -2% |
| Out of touch with ordinary people | 57% | 53% | 54% | +1% |
| Understands the problems facing Australia | 50% | 53% | 50% | -3% |
| Visionary | 32% | 31% | 27% | -4% |
| Superficial | 45% | * | ||
| Good in a crisis | 40% | 42% | 41% | -1% |
| Narrow-minded | 56% | 53% | 51% | -2% |
| More honest than most politicians | 33% | 32% | 31% | -1% |
| Trustworthy | 33% | 35% | 34% | -1% |
Tony Abbott’s key attributes were hard-working (72%), intelligent (64%) and arrogant (58%).
Major changes since this question was asked in October 2010 were decreases for intelligent (down 7% to 64%) and hard-working (down 6% to 72%).
22
Approval of Tony Abbott
Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the job Tony Abbott is doing as Opposition Leader?
| 18 Jan | 22 Feb | 29 Mar | 3 May | 31 May | 5 Jul | 2 Aug | 16 Aug | 20 Sep | 18 Oct | 22 Nov | |
| Total approve | 37% | 45% | 33% | 39% | 35% | 37% | 38% | 41% | 43% | 39% | 40% |
| Total disapprove | 37% | 36% | 50% | 43% | 50% | 47% | 48% | 44% | 37% | 45% | 40% |
| Strongly approve | 5% | 12% | 8% | 5% | 5% | 8% | 8% | 9% | 12% | 8% | 6% |
| Approve | 32% | 33% | 25% | 34% | 30% | 29% | 30% | 32% | 31% | 31% | 34% |
| Disapprove | 20% | 20% | 28% | 24% | 28% | 23% | 27% | 22% | 21% | 22% | 22% |
| Strongly disapprove | 17% | 16% | 22% | 19% | 22% | 24% | 21% | 22% | 16% | 23% | 18% |
| Don’t know | 26% | 18% | 16% | 18% | 16% | 16% | 14% | 15% | 19% | 17% | 19% |
40% (up 1%) approve of the job Tony Abbott is doing as Opposition Leader and 40% (down 5%) disapprove – a shift from a net rating from -6 to level.
78% of Coalition voters approve and 12% disapprove.
By gender – men 46% approve/38% disapprove, women 35% approve/43% disapprove. Men have shifted from a net rating of -7 to +8 while women have changed from -4 to -8.
All pollsters performed well in estimating the 2PP vote – all were within 0.3% to 1.3% of the current result. The Essential Report and Morgan Research were closest with 51/49. Newspoll’s 50.2/49.8 was next closest with Nielsen and Galaxy 1.3% off at 52/48.
However, a better way to compare the polls is to look at their first preferences for the major parties. Because the 2PP is based on an assumed distribution of preferences – not on the actual measurement of voting intentions.
Although all polls were within the margin of error, based on estimates for the 3 major party groupings, Essential Report was clearly the closest – their average difference being just 0.5%. Most polls over-estimated the Greens vote and Newspoll underestimated the Labor vote.
This is the first Federal election where public online polling has been used extensively, and the performance of the Essential Report poll is significant in that it has shown this methodology can provide reliable and valid measures of public opinion.
| Actual current | Newspoll | Nielsen | Galaxy | Morgan | Essential | |
| Labor | 38.5% | 36.2% | 39% | 38% | 38% | 38% |
| Coalition | 43.5% | 43.2% | 41.5% | 41% | 42% | 43% |
| Greens | 11.4% | 13.9% | 13% | 14% | 13% | 12% |
| Others | 6.6% | 6.5% | 6.5% | 7% | 7% | 7% |
| Average difference (Labor, Coalition & Greens) | 1.7 | 1.4 | 1.9 | 1.2 | 0.5 |
| Actual current | Newspoll | Nielsen | Galaxy | Morgan | Essential | |
| Labor 2PP | 50.7% | 50.2% | 52% | 52 | 51% | 51% |
| Difference | 0.5 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the job Barnaby Joyce is doing as opposition shadow Finance Minister?
| % | |
| Total approve | 25% |
| Total disapprove | 36% |
| Net rating | -11% |
| Strongly approve | 4% |
| Approve | 21% |
| Disapprove | 22% |
| Strongly disapprove | 14% |
| Don’t know | 39% |
One quarter (25%) of those surveyed approve of the job Barnaby Joyce is doing as opposition shadow Finance Minister, 36% disapprove and 39% don’t know.
Results followed party lines – Coalition voters were more likely to approve of the job Joyce is doing (47%), while Labor voters were more likely to disapprove (53%).
56% of Green voters and 23% of Coalition voters disapprove of the job Joyce is doing as opposition shadow Finance Minister.
Males were more likely to disapprove of the job Joyce is doing (43%), while females were more likely to indicate they don’t know (47%). Comments »
Essential Report
Two Party Preferred: 30 Jan 2012
54+/- 0
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