More voters approve of the Turnbull government’s controversial plans to overhaul the Racial Discrimination Act than disapprove, and they have also given a clear thumbs up to the prime minister’s proposal to expand the Snowy Hydro scheme.



But while the government will take heart from some findings in this week’s Guardian Essential poll, the new survey suggests Labor continues to hold an election-winning lead over the Coalition.

The latest weekly survey of 1,808 voters has Labor well ahead of the Coalition, 54% to 46% on the two-party-preferred measure. This result compares with last week’s Guardian Essential survey, which had Labor 10 points in front, like a new Ipsos poll published on Monday.

With the last parliamentary week dominated by the government’s proposed changes to the Racial Discrimination Act, voters were asked whether they approved of the Turnbull government’s plan to overhaul 18C.

The government’s proposed change to the legislation, expected to be debated in the Senate on Tuesday, would remove the terms “insult”, “offend” and “humiliate” and insert the higher definition of “harass” into section 18C.

Respondents were asked: “The Racial Discrimination Act makes it an offence to ‘intimidate, humiliate, offend or insult’ someone because of their race or ethnicity. It has been proposed to replace the words ‘humiliate, offend or insult’ with ‘harass’. This means it will be unlawful to ‘harass or intimidate’ someone because of their race or ethnicity but not unlawful to ‘humiliate, offend or insult’. Do you approve or disapprove of this change?”

A total of 45% said they approved, with 34% opposed.

Voters were also asked whether they thought laws governing racial discrimination in Australia were too strict, too weak or about right.

A total of 40% thought Australia’s current laws governing racial discrimination were about right, 26% thought they were too weak and 16% thought they were too strict.

Voters were asked the same set of questions about the RDA in November 2016, and the results suggest community sentiment has not shifted despite months of political contention over the issue.

In terms of the government’s proposed overhaul of the RDA, a clear majority of Liberal/National voters approve (58%), 50% of Greens votes disapprove and Labor voters were split down the middle with 45% approval and 41% disapproval.

A majority of people aged over 65 approved of the proposal and 39% of those with university education disapproved.

In terms of the response to the question about whether the laws were too strict, too weak or about right, those most likely to think they are too weak were Greens voters (37%) and people aged 18-34 (30%).

Those most likely to think they were too strict were “other” voters (29%) and voters aged over 55 (25%).

The government’s proposal currently lacks the requisite support in the Senate to pass into law. The Nick Xenophon Team has signalled preparedness to countenance changes to the processes administered by the Australian Human Rights Commission, but not legislative change.

Ethnic and legal groups including the Human Rights Commission, the Law Council of Australia and the Human Rights Law Centre used a snap Senate inquiry into the proposal last week to raise serious concerns over the Coalition’s bill.

That snap inquiry is due to report on Tuesday, with Senate debate to get under way shortly after.

The changes have been championed by the rightwing of the Liberal party, but have been opposed by moderate MPs in marginal seats.

Five moderates spoke out during party room debate last week against changing the RDA – New South Wales Liberals David Coleman, Julian Leeser, and Craig Laundy, and Victorians Julia Banks and Russell Broadbent.

The deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, has argued publicly the change should not be a priority for the government, and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, the minister for international development and the Pacific, also warned the party room last week that the decision would hurt the government in ethnic communities.

The new poll indicates the prime minister’s plans for a $2bn expansion of the Snowy Hydro scheme that could add up to 50% to its capacity has gone down well with the public. The idea was approved by a majority of respondents.

A total of 59% approved of the Snowy Hydro scheme, 12% disapproved and 30% could not give an opinion.

People most likely to support the proposal were Liberal/National voters (72%), men (66%) and voters aged over 55 (73%).

But voters are continuing to give the thumbs down to company tax cuts – the issue the Turnbull government is intent on pursuing in this last sitting week before the budget.

Voters were asked to nominate issues they believed should be the main priority for the government and 46% thought the one of the government’s main priorities was to invest more in hospitals and health services.

Other important priorities were ensuring big businesses paid its fair share of tax (30%), the government doing more to address unemployment (26%), investing more in education (24%) and investing more in renewable energy (23%).

Cutting company tax and making changes to superannuation were regarded as the least important issues.

Since this question was asked last July, voters are more interested in investing in renewable energy (up 6%), voting on same sex marriage (up 4%) and providing more support for local industries (up 4%).

There have been decreases in the categories – investing more in hospitals and health (down 9%) investing more in education (down 7%) and cutting spending to reduce the deficit (down 7%).



