Vote Compass has been completed more than half a million times since it was launched last weekend, and today the ABC is able to release initial findings on what voters rate as the most important issues.

Unlike telephone polls, Vote Compass is not a random sample. People opt in by completing the survey, and analysis relies on weighting the data to reflect the characteristics of the Australian population.

Around half of all respondents have provided the demographic and electorate data required to weight the data, creating a huge sample size for analysis.

So what are the key findings on the issues that voters think are most important at the 2013 election?

The graph below shows the seven areas nominated most as the key issue for this campaign.

Vote Compass preliminary analysis up to August 9, 2013 shows how what the most important policy areas are to voters. ( ABC News )

Leading the list is the economy, rated as most important by 28 per cent of respondents. Asylum seekers was nominated by 13 per cent, followed by the other issues shown in the graph.

The final issue listed, trust, may actually be understated in its importance. Most people think of a policy area when you ask the most important issues, not a perception like trust. Yet we know that trust in a party, and in particular trust in a leader, is very important in deciding the voting intention of softly committed voters. Vote Compass will provide more analysis of trust when we look at leader ratings later in the campaign.

Focusing on the economy, the graph below shows that there is a clear partisan difference in perceptions of its importance as the key issue.

Vote Compass preliminary analysis up to August 9, 2013 shows how important economy policy is to voters of various political persuasions. ( ABC News )

Nearly half of respondents intending to vote for the Coalition rated the economy as the most important issue, much higher than the 17 per cent for Labor voters and 6 per cent for intended Green voters.

What needs to be remembered here is that these attitudes are heavily correlated with other socio-economic variables, so it is not necessarily intended vote creating this difference. Older voters rate the economy more highly than younger voters, as shown in the first graph below, while the second graph shows rating of the economy as an issue by interest in politics.

Vote Compass preliminary analysis up to August 9, 2013 shows how important economy policy is to voters of various ages. ( ABC News )

Vote Compass preliminary analysis up to August 9, 2013 shows how important economy policy is to voters. ( ABC News )

If you look at the detailed demographics, the economy also received different ratings by gender and by income. Voters' perception of the economy as important was also heavily skewed by self-identified left-right ideology.

The perception of asylum seekers as an issue shows a reverse relationship based on intended vote.

Vote Compass preliminary analysis up to August 9, 2013 shows how important the subject of asylum seekers is to voters of various persuasions. ( ABC News )

In this case intended Greens voters were more than twice as likely as Labor and Liberal supporters to nominate asylum seekers as the key issue.

However, a key point to stress here is that intended voters of different parties may have very different reasons for nominating asylum seekers as the key issue. Presumably Green supporters nominate it as an issue based on the need to show compassion to asylum seekers, while Labor and Coalition voters may have a different mix of motivations.

Again, the detailed demographics show other correlations with nomination of asylum seekers as the key issue, including left-right ideology, gender and income.

Note that with income, the lower the income group, the greater the tendency to nominate asylum seekers as an issue. What the data can't tell us is whether this is because lower-income workers feel their jobs are threatened by asylum seekers, or is it that younger voters are lower paid, are more likely to vote Green, and it is the voting intent of this group of lower-paid workers that is creating the relationship.

As I mentioned, respondents nominated asylum seekers as an issue but clearly this question does not allow us to dissect the motivation of the sample. That will be revealed later in the campaign when we do more detailed analysis of responses to the policy questions.

A final key difference is shown among respondents who nominated climate change as the key issue.

Vote Compass preliminary analysis up to August 9, 2013 shows how important the subject of climate change is to voters of various persuasions. ( ABC News )

Overall the ratings reveal that voters of different parties have very different perceptions of the key issues.

Among intending Coalition supporters, half rate the economy as the key issue, while half of intended Green voters nominate either climate change or asylum seekers.

Which leaves Labor in an interesting position in this campaign. Labor and the Coalition battle against each other on a broad range of issues, including crucially the economy, while Labor has to also protect its rear on two issues that seem to be key drivers of Green support.