More voters back Peter Dutton’s call to pause arrivals of Palestinians from the Gaza conflict than oppose it, in a sign the opposition leader’s rhetoric is politically profitable despite the charge he is intentionally dividing Australians.
Despite the fact border crossings from Gaza are already closed, 44% of respondents to Guardian Australia’s latest Essential poll agreed with Dutton’s call for a pause, compared with 30% who opposed it and 26% undecided.
Those are the results of a poll of 1,129 voters conducted at the conclusion of a febrile parliamentary sitting week in which the Coalition repeatedly attacked the Albanese government by claiming Palestinians who came on visitor visas were subject to less rigorous security checks than those fleeing previous conflicts.
A former senior immigration official, Abul Rizvi, said the idea that people coming to Australia from Gaza posed a national security threat was a “complete beat-up”. Labor has noted the process for security checks is the same regardless of which visa people arrive on, and that the Coalition also used visitor visas for those fleeing the invasion of Ukraine.
More than half of respondents (52%) said Australia is heading down the “wrong track” while just 29% said it is heading in the “right direction”, underscoring the difficulty for the government as it heads to an election before May 2025.
The Essential poll found that Anthony Albanese’s approval has reached a new low of -10, with 50% of respondents disapproving of his performance as prime minister and 40% approving.
Dutton’s approval is largely unchanged from late July, with 42% approving of his performance as opposition leader and 41% disapproving.
Young people led opposition to Dutton’s call on pausing arrivals of Palestinian refugees, with 35% of those aged 18 to 34 opposed and just 29% in favour. The majority (57%) of those aged 55 and over backed Dutton, with just a quarter (25%) opposed.
Voters were split on Dutton’s motivations, with just over half (54%) saying he had taken this position because “he genuinely cares about national security” and just less than half (46%) saying “he is more interested in driving division for political purposes”.
Support for immigration is finely balanced, with an equal proportion (42%) describing it as “generally positive” or as “generally negative” for Australia. The proportion with a positive view is down four points since November 2023, while the share with a negative view is up eight points.
Immigrants were blamed for house prices, with more than two-thirds of voters (69%) saying they had a negative impact compared with just 15% saying positive.
More respondents also said immigration was negative for jobs than positive (50% to 35%) and the environment (43% to 24%), but were more evenly balanced on its impact on the economy (41% to 42%).
Measures of racism produced mixed results. Thirty-seven per cent of respondents described Australia as “a racist country”, down four points since May 2023. But the proportion who described Australia as “less racist than it has been in the past” was also down four points to 46%.
There were small reductions in the proportion of respondents reporting that they or a family member had experienced racism or racist discrimination, about 30% for each.
Views of Israel’s military action in Gaza were largely unchanged, with 39% of respondents calling on Israel to permanently withdraw, 17% who said Israel’s action was justified, 21% who want a temporary ceasefire and 24% who were unsure.
More than half (51%) of respondents are satisfied with the Australian government’s response, while twice as many (32%) say Australia has been too supportive of Israel than say it has been too harsh on Israel (16%).
