Survey finds majority of Australian voters think the nation is full

A new survey into Australia’s attitudes towards our immigration rates has revealed what we really think about our growing population.

Nearly three-quarters of Australian voters say the nation is full, and more than half believe it’s in danger of losing its culture and identity, according to a new survey.

A big slice of Labor voters also hold those views, prompting the report’s authors to speculate that many could be lost to the party if they were effectively recruited in an election campaign.

Conducted in late 2018, The Australian Population Research Institute poll of 2029 voters found that 72 per cent believed Australia didn’t need more people, while half wanted immigration reduced.

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Australia has enough people, says a new national survey. Picture: Alex Coppel.

It revealed that 56 per cent thought Australia was in danger of losing its culture and identity, while 47 per cent supported a partial ban on Muslim immigration.

Authors Dr Katharine Betts and Dr Bob Birrell said while the findings reflected rising concern about urban congestion and cultural change, there was a huge disconnect between the views of graduates and non-graduates.

For example, 60 per cent of non-graduates wanted immigration cut, compared to only a third of graduates.

And on the question is Australia in danger of losing its culture and identity, two-thirds of non-graduates agreed compared to 41 per cent of graduates.

Dr Katharine Betts and Dr Bob Birrell from The Australian Population Research Institute

But the survey revealed little support for the theory that this division reflected a rising number of non-graduates who had been “left behind” economically, as has been postulated to explain the election of US President Donald Trump and the UK’s Brexit vote.

“The divide is not so much between the well-to-do and the poor and unemployed,” the report said.

“Rather it is between the graduate class, immersed in a cosmopolitan world view, and non-graduates attached to the ethos of their national home.”

Immigration has transformed some Melbourne suburbs.

The authors said that some pre-election analysis had cited the potential loss of Coalition voters in blue-riband seats like Kooyong and Higgins, due to the federal government’s alleged failure “to embrace the progressive agenda on asylum seekers and diversity”.

“However, there are far more Labor voters who could be lost because they do not share the

Labor Party’s progressive agenda,” they said.

“For example, 47 per cent of Labor voters think Australia is in danger of losing its culture and identity, and 44 per cent want immigration levels reduced.”

“For such losses to occur, of course, there would need to be a campaign to mobilise these

voters.”

The report is due to be released on Thursday at tapri.org.au

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@JMasanauskas