Abstract

A narrow majority of Australians favour government spending to stimulate the economy in response to the Global Financial Crisis, but two-thirds of the public are concerned about the effects that the debt will have on future generations, according the results of the fifth ANU Poll.

The fifth ANU Poll provides insight into what the Australian public thinks about the recession, the stimulus package, tax policy and economic policy. It also found that the majority of Australians think the amount of tax they pay is about right and that infrastructure spending, rather than tax cuts, are the main means of improving the economy.

According to Professor Ian McAllister, who leads ANU Poll, one of the most surprising findings from the poll was that Australians are remarkably upbeat about the future despite the financial crisis.

“When the respondents were asked if the best days for employment were in the past or in the future, for the first time since the question was asked in 1998, more respondents said that the best times were ahead than were behind. Given the effects of the GFC, this is an interesting and unexpected finding, and suggests that in spite of the economic recession, there remains considerable public optimism about the resilience of the economy,” Professor McAllister said.

Dr Lindy Edwards, a post-doctoral research fellow at ANU, said the results suggested that Australians understood the sources of the crisis quite differently from their US counterparts and that this had significant political implications for how governments respond. “In the US it is understood as a crisis created by big business. In Australia, we are tending to blame the excessive consumerism and debt of ordinary people for the crisis,” said Dr Edwards.

“Australians were most likely to nominate consumers rather than other actors as being responsible for the crisis — 39% said consumers had to carry ‘a great deal of the blame’, with only 36% and 31% saying the same of large business and banks. This in sharp contrast to Americans who see consumers as least to blame.

“Australians belief that excessive consumerism and debt are to blame for the crisis is likely to be influencing voters attitudes to the cash payments in the stimulus package, and making them more concerned about it.”

The poll found Australians had mixed attitudes to the governments stimulus package.

“Thirty-five percent of Australians say the package improved the economy, but 30% say it is too early to tell and 22% believe it has had no effect.” Dr Edwards said.

However the ANU Poll found much more positive attitudes to the types of spending that government will be doing in the second and third tranches of their stimulus package. When asked if ‘spending on domestic programs like health care, education and housing’ would benefit the economy, 56% said that it would provide ‘a great deal’ of benefit, and a further 28% said ‘some’ benefit.

Almost as many respondents-53%-mentioned ‘spending on infrastructure like roads and public buildings’ as a measure that would contribute ‘a great deal’ to improving the economy. Least favoured for improving the economy is cutting taxes and ‘putting more money in the hands of poor people.’

Every ANU Poll asks Australians to identify the most important problems facing the country, and checks the political mood. The fifth poll, 42% mentioned the economy as the most important problem, a decline from the 52% of the respondents who mentioned the economy in the March 2009 ANU Poll. The environment and global warming were mentioned by 10% of the respondents, a decline of two percentage points, followed by immigration (up 3 points) and health care (up 2 points).

“Despite the preoccupation with the economy and jobs, the political mood remains positive and is virtually unchanged from the March 2009 ANU Poll. A remarkably high 71 percent are satisfied with the way the country is heading, compared to 70 percent in March,” Professor McAllister said.

This is the fifth ANU Poll. ANU Poll is a survey of Australian public opinion of matters on matters of national importance. ANU Poll differs from other opinion polls by benchmarking Australia against international opinion.

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