Australians have responded to the federal Budget with voters backing the case for lower migration and mixed reactions to the Albanese Government’s cost-of-living measures, according to two polls released today. Source: The Age and The Australian.
A Resolve Strategic poll published in The Age reveals 66 per cent of Australians believe last year’s migration intake was too high, and that 50 per cent of voters want Labor to make deeper cuts to migration than it revealed in last week’s federal Budget.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has called for more drastic action on migrant intake cuts, which would make more housing available.
While the Budget forecast a fall in net overseas migration, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the Coalition’s proposed deeper cut would weaken the Budget and the economy when the country needed nurses, builders and other skilled workers within the lower intake.
The Government gained strong support in the Resolve poll for new Budget measures including its $3.5 billion energy subsidy and its $6.2 billion housing plan, as well as greater backing for the revised stage 3 income tax cuts.
But the Budget has not generated political gains for the government, with the Labor primary vote slipping from 30 to 29 per cent over the past month and the Coalition vote holding steady at 36 per cent.
The survey found that 40 per cent of respondents believed the Budget was good for them and their households, up from 31 per cent on the same question after the Budget last May.
A post-Budget Newspoll published in The Australian shows the Budget fell flat with voters amid a record low number of people judging it good for the economy and a majority believing it will throw more fuel on the inflation fire.
And less than a third of people believe they will be financially better off, despite a tax cut, rental assistance and a $300 energy subsidy, although this was higher than Labor’s previous two Budgets.
A sizable number of voters (39 per cent) believed the Budget would be worse for inflation compared to only 15 per cent saying it would be good for inflation. These results mirror those from Dr Chalmer’s 2023 Budget.
Only 27 per cent of voters believed Labor’s Budget would be good for the economy. This is the lowest score on this measure since Newspoll began assessing voters’ reactions to Budgets in 1999. The same number of voters said it would be bad for the economy, which is an improvement on Dr Chalmers’ last two Budgets.
The Newspoll showed Labor holding a 52-48 two-party preferred lead over the Coalition.
FULL STORY
Voters favour deeper cuts to migration as Labor misses budget boost (By David Crowe, The Age)
Newspoll: Labor and Anthony Albanese up but voters mark down budget as bad for inflation and economy (By Simon Benson, The Australian)
