Poll reveals cost of living and youth crime most important issues facing Queenslanders

An exclusive poll reveals the issues Queensland voters are most concerned about, with the cost-of-living crisis and youth crime dominating results.

A quarter of Queenslanders are on the brink of their financial breaking point or have already fallen off the edge, with exclusive new polling revealing cost-of-living and housing affordability are the top issues impacting voters.

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And youth crime is not far from mind, with the YouGov poll commissioned by the Courier-Mail revealing nearly half of all Queenslanders believe offending by young people in their suburb has increased or hit crisis point.

The poll comes as those with a mortgage feel the crush of ten consecutive rate rises with renters also hit by the flow on impact of rising housing costs.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, signalling the state government was aware increasing hip pocket pain has become a political powder keg, said this week the upcoming budget would focus on alleviating cost-of-living pressures.

It had already been confirmed that Queenslanders are in line for a major discount on their electricity bills above $175 in the second half of the year.

A total of 1015 Queenslanders, in the week of March 30 to April 5, were asked to identify the most important issues impacting them at the moment.

Cost-of-living ranked among the top two most important issues for 64 per cent of people, followed by housing affordability at 41 per cent and youth crime at 37 per cent.

Half of Queenslanders polled said there were worse off now than 12 months ago, while 39 per cent have remained on the same footing.

And 17 per cent of Queenslanders are “getting close to breaking point” while 8 per cent said they’d already fallen off the financial edge, in a shock sign of the number of economically vulnerable families in the state.

In a bleak picture of what’s to come over the next year two in five Queenslanders believe their financial situation will get worse, while 43 per cent believe their lot will remain the same.

The optimism isn’t shared in regional Queensland, where 58 per cent say they are already worse off than they were 12 months ago and 87 per cent expect it to get worse or stay the same.

In a bid to tighten the purse strings 67 per cent have cut back on eating out or getting takeaway, while more than half (57 per cent) have cut back on food and groceries.

And a concerning 22 per cent of Queenslanders have cut back on the types of insurance they hold including house, car, contents, or income plans.

Another 17 per cent have cut or reduced their private health insurance, in a move that is set to have flow on impacts on an already struggling public system.

Nearly half of Queenslanders (45 per cent) believe youth crime is increasing in their suburb or is at “crisis levels”, though 81 per cent of those polled felt safe or very safe in their own homes.

The poll revealed 44 per cent of Queenslanders overall believe their suburb didn’t have much youth crime or the levels had remained the same while a further 11 per cent didn’t express a view.

And when asked about how safe they feel in their home, a total of 15 per cent said they felt mostly unsafe or very unsafe.

Though the proportion of those feeling unsafe increases significantly to 22 per cent — or more than one in five people — in regional Queensland.

This comes after a crime report — put together by the Queensland Government Statistician’s Office — found the proportion of people committing criminal acts in the state was at its lowest level in the decade.

But children now made up nearly a fifth of the state’s criminal cohort, the highest it has been in ten years, with young people making up more than half of those charged with certain offences including car theft and break-ins.

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