Poll shows voters’ preference for renewable energy in immigration minister’s seat and 16.8% primary vote for One Nation

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Most voters in Peter Dutton’s electorate oppose taxpayer subsidies for the Adani coalmine and more would prefer the government to fund renewable energy rather than coal-fired power plants, a poll has found.

The ReachTel poll of Dickson, commissioned by the Australia Institute, found that, even among Liberal National party voters, more opposed spending taxpayer funds on new coal-powered plants than supported it.

The poll also shows a large One Nation primary vote in the seat (16.8%).

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The poll of 726 voters, taken last Wednesday and released on Tuesday, found 60.6% opposed giving taxpayer funds to the Adani Carmichael coalmine in Queensland, compared with 17.5% who supported it.

A majority (55.8%) opposed taxpayers’ money subsidising new coal-fired power stations, compared with 26.7% who supported it. LNP voters narrowly opposed such a subsidy, by 41.2% to 37%.



The minister for resources and northern Australia, Matt Canavan, has suggested using funds from the $5bn northern Australia infrastructure fund to subsidise new coal plants.

On Sunday Canavan said the government’s planned expansion of pumped hydro in the Snowy Mountains scheme did not make subsidies for coal-fired power stations redundant.

A majority of respondents (65.2%) supported a more ambitious renewable energy target of sourcing 50% of electricity from renewable sources by 2030, compared with 22.8% who opposed it and 12% who were undecided.

Even LNP voters supported this measure, by 52.1% to 31.5%.

Labor has a goal of using 50% renewable energy by 2030 but describes the policy as an aspiration, not a target. The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, has struggled to nominate a cost for the policy. The Nationals leader, Barnaby Joyce, has dismissed the idea as “bat poo crazy”.

Asked which technology the government should fund, most Dickson voters picked new large-scale renewable energy infrastructure (39.2%), followed by battery and energy storage (19.2%), new coal-fired power stations (14.9%) and gas-fired power (11.3%).

Only One Nation voters preferred new coal-fired power stations out of those options, with 30.3% in favour of subsidies compared with 22.1% for large-scale renewables and 20.5% for battery and energy storage.



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One Nation voters backed subsidies for coal-powered stations 43.1% to 39% when presented as a binary choice.

The executive director of the Australia Institute, Ben Oquist, said the poll showed that, in a Coalition seat in Queensland, “the opposition to subsidising Adani is strong across all age groups and political parties”.

“Across a range of issues in the energy debate, one thing is clear to the Australian people – renewables, rather than coal, are the future,” he said. “Those calling for the financial backing for Adani and other coal projects are not only out of touch with economic reality and global trends but also with the views of voters.”

The poll put the LNP primary vote on 35.4%, followed by Labor (29.2%), One Nation (16.8%) and the Greens (9.4%).

Dutton came close to losing his seat at the 2016 election, winning with just 51.6% of the two-party-preferred vote and suffering a swing against him of 5.12%.

Some 3.7% said they intended to vote for another candidate and 5.5% were undecided.