What Australians really care about ahead of the 2022 Federal Election

China’s rising power and Australian-made goods are just some of the issues keeping voters up at night, according to a new poll. HAVE YOUR SAY

Voters are more concerned about health than the environment, worried about rising Chinese power, and want to see more goods manufactured in Australia, a national survey shows.

The survey of 4010 people for News Corp Australia has provided an insight into the pulse of the nation ahead of an election likely to take place between March and May next year.

It showed while health was overwhelmingly the major concern for voters, hip-pocket concerns such as increasing the pension and lowering energy costs were also top-of-mind.

Supporting Australian-made manufacturing came in as the third most important issue, possibly reflecting Australian concerns about the need to rely on foreign countries for medical and other supplies including vaccines during the Covid-19 crisis.

The survey also showed that while voters were concerned about the environment, they were more interested in protecting natural habitats such as rivers and bushland than they were in transitioning to renewable energy.

Increasing renewables was ranked the 15th most important issue out of 63 voter issues, immediately followed by rising security and economic competition from China. By comparison, protection of natural habitat such as rivers and bushland was ranked the 6th most important issue.

The survey by Ergo Strategy was conducted over two weeks in September, before the climate conference in Glasgow and while Melbourne and Sydney remained in Covid lockdown.

It showed expanding Medicare to cover more health services was the number-one priority, followed by the provision of quality aged care, and supporting Australian manufacturing.

Support for mental health services was ranked fourth – and was particularly strong among young people in Victoria, the most- locked-down state of Australia – followed by job creation and lowering unemployment.

Coalition voters were more interested in supporting Australian manufacturing, while Labor voters were more interested in increasing Medicare coverage.

Sarah Cameron, political scientist at the School of Social and Political Studies at the University of Sydney, said health and management of the economy were consistently rated as top issues of voter concern at election time.

Voters are more concerned with health than the environment, according to the survey.

“Covid-19 has really increased the salience of health as an issue,’’ Dr Cameron said.

“It has dominated the media for over a year and a half now so you would expect health to be a higher priority than it would be in ordinary times.’’

Dr Cameron cited another data set, the Australian Election Study, which showed 10 per cent of voters rated the environment as their number-one issue of concern in the 2016 election. By 2019, that figure had risen to 21 per cent.

She said younger voters – up to 50 per cent of them – rated environmental issues as their number-one concern, while older voters tended to be more concerned about health issues and management of the economy.

With both major parties talking extensively about environmental issues – mainly focused on renewable energies and transitioning away from fossil fuels – the Ergo Strategy survey showed that environmentally-motivated voters, including those in marginal and swing seats, nominated the protection of natural habitats (forests, rivers and natural bushland) as their number one issue of concern, followed by better preparation and resources to fight bushfires.

Resources to fight bushfires is another concern for voters.

Renewable energy was the third pressing environmental issue for voters.

Increasing renewables came third and while phasing out Australian reliance on fossil fuels was the 6th most important issue for environmentally-motivated voters.

The data shows those most interested in protecting the national environment were more likely to be aged 18-29 left-leaning female voters. Those most interested in renewable energy were also younger voters aged 18-29, left-leaning, likely to be living in a metropolitan area, and living in a double-income no-children household.

While 34 per cent of voters interested in protecting natural habitats were in households earning more than $100,000, that rate was slightly higher for those most interested in renewable energy, where 37 per cent of people were in households earning more than $100,000.

Health and the economy were the biggest concerns for older Australians.

While developing a nuclear power industry was of interest to environmentally-motivated voters, it was still only ranked the 9th most important issue. But across all voters nationally, nuclear power barely ranked, coming in as one of the least most-important issues, at 58th.

Committing to net zero emissions by 2050 – a strongly-debated policy issue in Canberra – was important to Greens voters but did not register strongly across the national survey results, coming in as the 39th most important issue.

When asked to rank global issues, the survey participants rated the need to protect Australia from growing Chinese security and economic competition as their number-one issue of importance.

These voters tended to be aged over 50, retired and right-leaning.

The voters’ second most-important global issue was a need for the Federal Government to take greater responsibility for quarantine – something state and territory leaders have been calling for over the Covid-19 pandemic.

The voters ranked reaching net zero emissions by 2050 their third most pressing global issue.

Coalition, undecided, marginal seat and swing seats voters all ranked China as their main global concern, while Labor voters ranked committing to net zero emissions their number-one global issue of concern.

China and Australia’s relationship needs rebuilding according to Australian voters.

PM ‘NEEDS TO BOW AND SCRAPE WITH CHINA’

Australia’s relationship with China and getting children back to a well-adjusted life are top of mind for voters who could swing the next federal election.

Curlewis couple Chris and Lynn Prescott, who live in the marginal Labor electorate of Corangamite, are concerned that Australia is taking its fight with the Chinese superpower too far.

Box Hill mother Sarah La Galle, whose electorate of Chisholm is held by the Liberals on a razor thin margin of half a per cent, is not ready to forget how a slow vaccine rollout prevented her children going back to school.

Mr Prescott felt China was getting “very agitated” with Australia and that Prime Minister Scott Morrison had not handled it well.

He was wary of China’s growing influence in the Pacific region but also concerned that being too adversarial with the economic superpower would be damaging.

“(The Prime Minister) probably needs to be aggressive but he has to tone it down as well,” Mr Prescott said.

“I think they’ll come back because they need a lot of our stuff … but I think Morrison has to take a trip over there and bow and scrape a bit.”

Sarah La Galle and kids Isobel, 7, and Charlotte, 5, from Box Hill. Picture: Jay Town

Mr and Mrs Prescott also believed the withdrawal from a submarine deal with France had hurt Australia’s reputation on the world stage – particularly after Morrison’s scuffle with French President Emmanuel Macron.

“I have family over in the UK and they’ve given us a real ribbing about it,” Mrs Prescott said.

They both voted Liberal at the last election and said they were likely to do so again.

Mrs La Galle, however, said her vote could be swayed from her traditional Liberal tendencies.

She said health was at the top of her list of concerns – particularly given the “farce” of a vaccine rollout.

“It could have been handled a lot better, a lot more smoothly,” Mrs La Galle said.

“The health workers should definitely have been vaccinated a lot faster … and people should have been encouraged to get vaccinated rather than all this scare stuff.

“The kids would have been back at school faster – why the teachers weren’t vaccinated faster, I don’t know.”

She also believed Australia needed to encourage more self reliance by stopping talent in technology and industry from going overseas.

But she was yet to see a policy platform from Labor or Liberal that satisfied her.

“Nothing that really fills me with confidence,” she said.

‘AUSTRALIA’S NOT ADAPTING FAST ENOUGH’

For Queensland couple Sarah and Gerard McCormack the federal government’s lacklustre response to tackling climate change is front of mind, as they worry about the world their sons Finn and Sam will inherit.

“I just wish we had a similar approach that other countries had toward climate change,” Ms McCormack said.

“Australia is not adapting fast enough.”

Gerard and Sarah McCormack with kids Finn, 9, and Sam, 12, from Hawthorne. Picture: Annette Dew

The family plan to get an electric car, but were considering a hybrid model as options remain limited in Australia.

Their new home, once construction is complete, will be equipped with solar panels.

Fears that Finn and Sam may not be able to crack into the housing market was another major concern, with surging prices already making ownership out of reach for many young Australians.

The McCormack’s, as residents of the leafy south Brisbane suburb of Hawthorne, are voters in the marginal seat of Griffith.

Griffith is currently held by Labor’s Terri Butler by a margin of 2.9 per cent after preferences and is expected to be a three-cornered fight with the Greens and the LNP.

‘WE ARE SEEN AS A JOKE’

Young people are more politically engaged than ever as talk of climate change and the Prime Minister dominates pub chat.

With TikTok making viral videos of Scott Morrison’s Glasgow trip, many young people are going into the next federal election more aware of their politicians than ever, and some say they are “embarrassed”.

“We are seen as a joke, no one wants to shake our Prime Minister’s hand,” recent uni grad Julie Saltoon said.

“It’s our future at the end of the day, if we don’t make change now who knows what will happen in the future.”

Student Luke Ratcliffe said often his chats with friends at the pub centre around a shared fear of inaction on climate change.

Julie Saltoon, Luke Ratcliffe and Natalia Kowalska. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

“The main the main kind of political discourse that happens especially at pubs and like, between friends is typically centred around complaining about politicians not doing enough,” he said.

While for many young people climate change policy will dominate their decision making in the next election, the vaccine rollout and the long term recovery from the pandemic were also big topics.

With the pandemic shutting down borders and supply chains under immense strain, another big election issue has arisen — local manufacturing.

Sydney fashion designer Devina Hofste makes the samples for her brand Devina Louise in her Waterloo studio, and the final products are made by seamstresses around Sydney.

“I’ve noticed especially in the last 18 months during Covid people have been a lot more interested in Australian made, before that time it was more interesting for tourists to buy Australian made products … but more recently it’s become quite important to people,” she said.

“A lot of the makers I know are really because a lot of brands are having to go back to Australian made, and I’m really hoping it will stay that way.”

Originally published as What Australians really care about ahead of the 2022 Federal Election