简体中文
Australia's coalition government continues to trail the Labor opposition in the latest public Newspoll, while a separate study showed almost a third of all Australians were overall dissatisfied with the nation's current parliamentary system.
Voters have continued showing their displeasure at Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's government in the latest Newspoll published in News Corp on Tuesday, with the coalition continuing to trail the Labor party 47 percent to 53 percent in the two-party preferred vote.
Turnbull himself continues to face pressure from voters, confidence in his performance as economic manager dropped below 50 percent for the first time since he took over the leadership in September 2015.
Newspoll pollsters gathered data from more than 1,700 voting Australians and also found the coalition's primary vote, before preferences, had slipped further to 38 percent, putting it once again on par with Labor's primary vote.
Despite the negative outlook for the government, Australian voters still prefer Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister over Labor leader Bill Shorten, the PM maintains a 10-point lead over the Opposition Leader at 43 percent to 33 percent.
Also on Tuesday, a report released by the Scanlon Foundation found almost half of all Australian voters were dissatisfied with how the nation's parliament is run.
Australia'sPrime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Photo:abc.net.au
The 2016 Mapping Social Cohesion report took into account the responses of more than 35,000 people since 2007 and more than 1,500 people since the July election, and found a growing discontent for Australia's parliamentary system, with 31 percent of respondents of the belief that it requires a "major change".
The report's author, Prof. Andrew Markus said engagement levels in this year's federal election were among the lowest recorded, with interest lowest among young men aged between 18 and 24 years.
"There was an expectation that following the victory of the coalition in 2013, there would be a significant increase in trust. However, in 2016 only 29 percent of respondents have a high level of trust in the government, which is 19 percent lower than in 2009," Markus said in a statement released on Tuesday alongside the report.
"One factor influencing disengagement and a lack of trust in the system may be a disconnect between politicians and the public on key topical issues."
The report found the majority of the Australian public disagreed with the government on a number of modern topics such as the use of medicinal marijuana and the issue of voluntary euthanasia.
"Of those surveyed, 83 percent of respondents support medical use of marijuana, 80 percent support medically approved euthanasia, and 67 percent support marriage equality," the report said of issues currently opposed by the government.
"Reduced reliance of coal for electricity generation was supported by 70 percent."
In addition, study also quizzed Australians about the current social climate of the nation, with 83 percent of Australians in support of growing multiculturalism.
Markus said while the trend was slightly down on previous years, there was a general "positive view" of multiculturalism in Australia.
"Most people see multiculturalism as a two-way process of change, involving adaptation from Australian-born and migrants," he said.
Markus added that, positively, 91 percent of Australian felt a "sense of belonging" to the nation.
(APD)
