2012 Lowy Institute PollPublic Opinion and Foreign Policy

Migration

• Sixty-two percent of Australians say they are in favor of “the government allowing in extra workers from foreign countries” when “there are shortages of workers in Australia and companies in Australia cannot find enough skilled workers”.

Migration• Presented with 6

hypothetical criteria for determining which migrants should be allowed to come to Australia, having similar values to Australians was ranked most important (34%) and race was ranked least important (4%)

Climate Change & Carbon Tax

• A majority (63%) of Australians say they are against legislation introducing a fixed price on carbon that will then lead to an Emissions Trading Scheme.

Climate Change: Dealing with Global

Warming

• Only a third (36%) of Australians now support the most aggressive form of action, down from two thirds (68%) back in 2006.

• The largest proportion (45%) of Australians now support the intermediate proposition, up five points since last year.

Avoiding Recession?

• 70% of Australians say that a major reason Australia managed to avoid falling into recession is demand for Australian resources from countries like China, compared to 41% who say a major reason is good Australian government policies.

Foreign Investment in Australian Farms

• A majority (81%) of Australians are against the government allowing foreign companies to buy Australian farmland to grow crops or farm livestock.

Attitudes to Chinese Investment

• “China is seeking to buy Australian mining and agricultural companies and these need to be kept in Australian hands” (54%) and

• “China has so much money to invest it could end up buying and controlling a lot of Australian companies” (51%).

US Military Bases in Australia

• After the November 2011 announcement that US Marines would be deployed to Australia, 74% of Australians say that they are in favor of up to 2,500 US soldiers being based in Darwin.

US Military Bases: more soldiers?

• 46% are also in favor of allowing more than 2,500 soldiers to be based in Australia.

US Military Bases: China/Indonesia objection

• If either China or Indonesia objected, then support to increase the number is 51% in the case of China and 54% in the case of Indonesia.

War in Afghanistan

• Support for the war in Afghanistan has hit a record low, this year with just 33% of Australians saying Australia should continue to be involved militarily in Afghanistan, down seven points since last year.

Bali Bombings

• 2012 will mark the tenth anniversary of the Bali Bombings in which 202 people died, including 88 Australians.

• Only 11% of Australians say the bombers have been fully brought to justice with most (61%) saying they have only partly been brought to justice.

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