More than 70% of voters think the Turnbull government is not doing enough to ensure affordable, reliable and clean energy for Australian households and businesses – and a clear majority also supports Labor’s goal of sourcing 50% of energy from renewable sources by 2030.



The latest Guardian Essential poll suggests that the Turnbull government’s relentless partisan attacks on Labor’s 50% renewable energy policy, and its concerted efforts early in the new political year to position itself as the party of cheaper and more secure power, haven’t yielded the desired result.

The poll shows 71% of the sample think the federal government is not doing enough to ensure affordable, reliable and clean energy – and only 12% rate the current effort as satisfactory.

Even among their own constituency, Liberal and National voters, 62% of the sample said the government was not doing enough.

When asked about the ALP’s aspirational goal to source 50% of energy from renewable sources by 2030, 65% of voters registered their approval of the concept.

The policy – which has been repeatedly branded reckless and ideological by the prime minister – won strong majority approval from both Labor and Green voters. Coalition voters were also more likely to approve of the target than disapprove.

The political campaign by the government hasn’t moved the dial in any significant way. Attitudes to the policy have changed little since it was unveiled by Bill Shorten in 2015.

Voters were also divided about whether or not Australia should build new coal-fired power stations but a clear majority opposed the idea. Forty-five per cent of the sample said it was a bad idea and 31% supported building new coal-fired power stations.

The people positive about the idea of building new coal-fired power stations were Liberal/National voters (47%), men (39%) and people aged 65 and over (53%).

The Turnbull government has been trumpeting the potential contribution of “clean” coal power. The energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, has indicated the government is considering changing the Clean Energy Finance Corporation rules to fund new coal-powered plants.

One week after the CEFC chief executive, Oliver Yates, told a Senate committee that investment in new coal plants was a risky proposition for taxpayers, Frydenberg said the change was a live option because “it’s called the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, not the renewable energy corporation”.

Most voters are also attributing power blackouts in South Australia to failures of the energy market in responding to extreme weather events (45%), rather than to problems with too many windfarms.

Nineteen per cent think the blackouts are mainly due to privatisation of electricity supply and only 16% think they are a result of too much reliance on renewable energy.

Since the statewide power blackout in South Australia last year, the government has been critical of the state’s comparatively high share of power generation from renewable sources, pointing to problems with intermittency with technologies such as wind and solar.

The latest poll also indicates there has been a bounce in the number of people who think climate change is real and is being caused by human activity.

After a summer of sweltering temperatures in Australia, 60% (up 6% since December) agree that climate change is happening and is caused by human activity and 25% (down 2%) believe that we may just be witnessing a normal fluctuation in the Earth’s climate.