This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

More than 75% of voters in Malcolm Turnbull’s Sydney electorate of Wentworth would support reviewing the environmental approvals for the controversial Queensland Adani coalmine, according to a new opinion poll.

A ReachTel survey of 676 residents in the prime minister’s electorate, commissioned by the progressive thinktank, the Australia Institute, found an emphatic majority favoured a review of the project approvals, including 70% of Liberal voters.

The byelection in the Melbourne seat of Batman is now in its final week, and opposition to the mine is a significant issue in the head-to-head contest between Labor and the Greens.

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While the focus in recent weeks has been on Labor, and Bill Shorten’s shifting position on the Queensland project, the new poll underscores the fact the mine proposal remains unpopular in inner city electorates around the country, creating political problems for both major parties, given third-party activist groups are running a significant campaign against it.

Even geographically closer to the project, in the marginal Liberal-held electorate of Brisbane, 59% of a sample of 747 voters supported a review of Adani’s environmental approvals, including 48.6% of LNP voters.

“Adani isn’t just a potent issue in Batman,” said Ebony Bennett, the thinktank’s deputy director. “It’s an issue on the government and the prime minister’s plate right now.”

Voters in both Liberal-held electorates were also asked questions about the future of coal, including whether mining and burning coal made the symptoms of global warming worse.

A majority voters in Turnbull’s electorate, 64.7%, agreed with the statement: “Australia must halt the expansion of coalmining and fast-track building wind and solar power and storage in order to effectively reduce the worsening impacts of climate change” – including 54.2% of Liberal voters.



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Just over 70% of Wentworth voters agreed with the statement: “The mining and burning of coal fuels global warming impacts such as heatwaves, bushfires, floods, droughts and more severe and frequent storms” – including 62% of Liberal voters.

A clear majority of all voters and Liberal voters also favoured the adoption of a new rule to stop government agencies from putting taxpayer funds into coalmining projects.

“Most agree that Australia must halt the expansion of coalmining and fast-track building renewables and storage to reduce the worsening impacts of climate change,” Bennett said.

“The economic case for the Adani mine is weak. The banks know it, the voters know it and that’s likely why most voters oppose giving taxpayers’ money to support coal projects like Adani’s proposed mine.”