A Greater Australia: Population, policies and governance - CEDA

Section 3.1Table 9Survey results – which of these issues has been most important to you(1993), or most important to you during the election campaign (1998–2010)1993 1996 1998 2001 2004 2007–08 2010Unemployment 27.2% 13.4% 8.8% 3.8% 1.9% 2.2% 3.3%Interest rates 6.0% 9.8% 1.5% 9.4% 7.0% 7.2%Education 6.5% 11.2% 5.8% 17.0% 15.0% 10.5% 12.6%Environment 4.0% 5.1% 2.9% 3.7% 5.5% 7.7% 4.6%Taxation 18.3% 23.2% 16.3% 16.4% 11.0% 7.3%GST 22.6% 42.0% 12.8%Health and Medicare 6.4% 25.5% 9.9% 16.1% 30.2% 20.5% 23.0%Immigration 4.0% 2.8% 4.5% 1.8% 2.9%Refugees, asylum seekers 13.0% 2.7% 5.6%Population policy 1.0%Source: McAllister and Pietsch 2011Table 10Survey results – what do you think is the most important problem facingAustralia today? Selected issues, 2008–20112008March2008May2008Sept2009March2009July2009Oct2010March– April,June2010June– July2010Dec2011April– May2011SeptEconomy/ jobs 17.6% 26.3% 21.6% 52.6% 41.7% 32.4% 16.7% 16.9% 18.5% 18.2% 22.1%Interest rates 6.7% 4.3% 2.0% 0.1% 0.2% 0.5% 1.0%Housing affordability 6.9% 3.6% 3.0% 0.2% 0.6% 1.3% 1.6% 1.5% 1.0%Environment/ globalwarming19.1% 22.7% 17.9% 12.0% 10.1% 13.6% 12.2% 15.3% 12.4% 10.8% 9.8%Water management 8.4% 5.2% 5.7% 2.4% 3.7% 3.5% 2.9% 2.5% 0.6%Better government 3.2% 3.8% 3.2% 3.8% 3.3% 4.7% 9.9% 9.0% 17.6%Immigration 5.8% 3.0% 3.2% 6.0% 9.3% 6.6% 12.8% 13.8% 11.6% 20.1% 15.8%Increasing/ ageingpopulation0.2% 1.0% 0.7% 3.6% 2.6% 3.2% 1.8%Health care 4.5% 5.4% 7.1% 2.6% 4.8% 6.8% 13.1% 6.3% 6.9% 4.2% 2.7%Law and order/ crime/justice system1.5% 2.6% 2.5% 2.1% 3.6% 5.4% 2.5% 2.9% 1.6%Source: ANU Pollis raised to the mid-level. But even at such times, a large proportion of respondentsdo not select immigration/asylum as their top issue. Its peak in the ANU Poll is 20 percent, compared to a peak in the same poll of 53 per cent for the economy in March2009. Similarly, the Australian Electoral Study recorded a peak of 42 per cent for theGST issue in 1998 and 30 per cent for health issues in 2004, but a peak of only 13 percent for asylum and five per cent for immigration.A Greater Australia: Population, Policies and Governance127