Vote Compass: Double dissolution trigger not a big issue for voters

Updated

It's the issue that triggered the election but industrial relations is close to the bottom of the pile of what matters to Australian voters.

These are the first results generated by the ABC's Vote Compass survey, which has had more than 250,000 responses in the first week of the election campaign.

The results show Australians consider the economy the most important election issue, followed by education and health.

ABC election analyst Antony Green expected the economy to top this list, as it did in 2013. "It's the thing that affects most people's lives," he says.

And, for Green, it's not surprising that industrial relations is so far down the ranking of important issues.

"The key point is that with most double dissolutions the triggers have just been the excuse for the election." Green cites only one exception — the Whitlam government's double dissolution in 1974.

In April, Labor and crossbench Senators rejected a bill to reinstate the Australian Building Construction Commission, which triggered the July 2 double dissolution election. Labor and some of the crossbenchers said it was an attack on industrial relations rights and unions.

These findings are based on 60,310 respondents who participated in Vote Compass from May 8 to May 11, 2016. The data has been weighted to ensure the sample reflects the Australian population. [ Read the Vote Compass data FAQ ]

Topics: federal-elections, industrial-relations, federal-parliament, federal-government, australia

First posted