Newspoll: spending on services tops election priority list

Public spending on services remains a key election issue for voters, a Newspoll survey finds.

Scott Morrison in Canberra yesterday. Picture: Kym Smith

Public spending on services remains a key election issue for voters, as Australians struggle to adjust to the greatest fall in living standards since the 1990s, making cost of living pressures a pivotal campaign battleground.

An exclusive Newspoll conducted for The Australian showed that increased funding for government services was regarded as a more pressing concern than personal income tax cuts or paying down government debt.

The poll also reaffirmed that Scott Morrison was regarded as a better economic manager than Bill Shorten by a margin of 48 per cent to 33 per cent, which closely resembled the margin enjoyed by Malcolm Turnbull before he lost the Liberal Party leadership.

The poll, taken three months before an expected May election, found 33 per cent of voters believed increased funding for ser­vices should be the top priority followed by 30 per cent demanding that debt be dealt with first. Cutting income tax was the top priority for 27 per cent of voters.

 

However, among Coalition voters, paying down Labor’s debt legacy remained the most important policy issue for the ­government.

The poll of 1567 voters nationally — taken from last Thursday to Sunday — follows the release last week of modelling showing the standard of living over the past three years had had its largest fall for 30 years. State-based research for both parties has identified public-service delivery as a hot-button issue for voters.

Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews comfortably won the state election last November on a platform of better delivery of services including health, education and infrastructure. The Prime Minister has identified the need to address service delivery, acknowledging that the virtues of a strong economy were not enough unless they could be translated into improving people’s lives.

The Newspoll showed that 45 per cent of Coalition voters believed paying down national debt was paramount, followed by 26 per cent citing personal income tax cuts and 19 per cent wanting more money directed to services.

The results were reversed among Labor voters, with 49 per cent claiming increased public spending on services was most important, while 26 per cent wanted tax cuts and only 18 per cent believed cutting government debt was the critical issue.

Two years ago, voters said that cutting government spending was a preferable way of balancing the budget rather than raising taxes.

Opposition Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen last week used household budget pressures in an attack on the Coalition, saying “the cost of living is rising but living standards are stagnating”.

“Under this government, far too many Australians have spent the last five years chained to a treadmill,” Mr Bowen said. “Chained to a treadmill of low wages, insecure work, unaffordable housing and the rising cost of living.”

Mr Shorten said last week: “There is no issue any more important than the growing gulf between cost of living and flagging wages in this country”.