Abstract

Public support for more defence spending is a 20-year low and more than 70% of Australians oppose tax increases to pay for more defence spending, according the results of the fourth ANU Poll.

The fourth ANU Poll provides insight into what the Australian public thinks about defence and defence-spending ahead of the expected release of the Government’s Defence White Paper. It found a majority of Australians believe that defence is now stronger than it was ten years ago.

According to Professor Ian McAllister, who leads ANU Poll, two-thirds of Australians would support a son or daughter joining the military, compared to only 51% of US citizens.

“Opinion towards defence and foreign affairs is very responsive to events in the international environment. When there is international conflict and tension, support for defence is high, but it drops during periods of relative peace,” Professor McAllister said.

“At the moment, however, we also have public concern about the economy, so it isn’t surprising to see that while support for defence is high; there is significant antipathy to increased defence spending and increased taxes to cover it.

“There has been little change between 2000 and 2009 in the types of activities the public sees as important for the ADF to carry out, with disaster relief seen as most important followed by defending Australia against a foreign aggressor. Participating in United Nations missions is deemed to be the least important activity.

“Support for the defence link between Australia and the United States equals the peak recorded immediately after 9/11 but Australians are very pessimistic about the chances of success in Afghanistan, perhaps reflecting the public’s experience with the Iraq War. Sixty-nine percent of respondents believe that the United States and its allies are loosing the war. Australian public opinion closely matches public opinion in the US, where a recent CNN survey found that 64% believed the US was loosing the war.”

Every ANU Poll asks Australians to identify the most important problems facing the country, and checks the political mood. The fourth poll has identified a remarkable turnaround in the priorities of public opinion in a relatively short period of time, with the economy now firmly the most important issue. The most third poll published in October 2008 found that economy only just rated ahead of environment, and at the time of the first ANU Poll in March 2008 environment was ranked first.

“Despite the preoccupation with the economy and jobs, the political mood remains positive with a remarkably high 70% saying they are satisfied with where the country is heading, only a slight change from 69% in October 2008,” Professor McAllister said.

This is the fourth 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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