No mandate for carbon laws repeal, national poll finds Media Release

June 23, 2013 – 12:00am

A national poll from early June reveals that there is no support for the claim that the Federal election is a referendum on the carbon laws. It also shows that more Australians oppose a double dissolution on the laws than support one, said The Climate Institute today.

Key findings include:

• Only a third (37 per cent) of Australians believe that the Coalition should repeal carbon pricing if it is elected to government at the next Federal election. That is down from 48 per cent in an Ipsos poll of late May 2012, as reported last July in the Climate of the Nation 2012 report.

• There is no mandate for a double dissolution if the Coalition fails to get the carbon laws abolished, with considerably more people against a double dissolution election (43 per cent) than for one (34 per cent).

• For Coalition voters, the top concerns are about Labor’s economic mismanagement, its perceived broken lies and promises generally and Julia Gillard’s ‘carbon tax lie’. The carbon tax itself was further down a list of issues including waste of taxpayers’ money and dislike of policies generally.

“There is perhaps a growing recognition that the cost of living impacts were not as severe as claimed by many and that the carbon price is beginning to work,” said Connor.

New data from Westpac Economics shows that the carbon price added less than half a per cent to the Consumer Price Index — half of what was expected. At the same time emissions from energy fell by 7 per cent between March 2012 and March 2013, according to consultancy Pitt & Sherry.

“Australians just want to move on and are much more concerned with the economy, jobs and general broken promises,” Connor said. “They don’t want to waste more time squabbling over carbon pricing, which they are starting to see at work, as Australia’s energy emissions have fallen and cost of living scares did not materialise.”

Download a factsheet summarising the polling results below.

For more information

Kristina Stefanova | Communications Director, The Climate Institute | 02 8239 6299