Voters in the Liberal-held seat of North Sydney have ranked climate and the environment as a higher priority than the economy, while they see integrity in politics as narrowly more important than the cost of living, a new poll shows.
With Scott Morrison placing the economy at the centre of his re-election pitch and playing down his broken promise to establish a commonwealth integrity commission, the poll highlights pressures the Coalition may face as it seeks to hold socially progressive seats.
High-profile independent candidates including Kylea Tink, who is challenging Liberal moderate Trent Zimmerman in North Sydney, are seeking to place climate action and a fully fledged integrity commission at the centre of their campaigns.
A telephone poll asked 1,114 adults in North Sydney on 11 and 12 April which issue, out of a set of options, was “most important to you when deciding how to vote in the upcoming federal election”.
The top result (27.2%) was climate and the environment, followed by the economy (19.7%), according to the poll commissioned by Climate 200, which is backing a range of independent candidates including Tink.
The next highest result was integrity and trust in politics (16.2%) which was similar to the fourth result, cost of living (12.6%). The less popular options in North Sydney were national security (10.2%), health and aged care (6.9%), and education and training (2.2%).
The polling report by Community Engagement, which carried out the survey, said the data was weighted based on gender, age, education and recall of their vote at the last election, with an effective margin of error of plus or minus 3.5%.
It is understood Climate 200 also polled voters in a range of other “new marginal” seats in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth through March and April, with integrity showing up as one of the top issues.
Guardian Australia has been told integrity rates as the main concern for 19.5% of respondents in the WA seat of Curtin (held by Liberal MP Celia Hammond), 18.6% of respondents in the Victorian seat of Goldstein (Tim Wilson), 20.4% in Kooyong (Josh Frydenberg) and 19.6% in Wentworth (Dave Sharma).
Over the past few days, Morrison has been on the defensive over the Coalition’s failure to legislate a commonwealth integrity commission despite promising to do so before the 2019 election.
The prime minister said Australia needed an integrity commission “that is driven by the processes of the rule of law, that doesn’t seek to judge people before they’re able to have their matters properly considered”.
Morrison has sought to blame Labor for not supporting the model proposed by the Coalition – an explanation derided by retired judges as “spurious”.
The government released an exposure draft but never introduced a bill to parliament, where the proposal could have been amended by Labor and the crossbench together with Liberal defectors who support a stronger model.
The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, pledged to legislate a strong anti-corruption commission by the end of 2022.
Tink said the prime minister had “dismissed our community and other ‘inner-city seats’ too often”, and recent developments showed the limited influence of Liberal “moderates” in shaping the party’s direction.
“Our two-party political system is broken and nowhere is this clearer than in Scott Morrison’s dismissal of the need for a robust national anti-corruption commission,” she said.
“Equally concerning is his refusal to disendorse Katherine Deves as the Liberal candidate for the neighbouring seat of Warringah despite her appalling vilification of the trans community, one of the most vulnerable groups of people in our nation.”
Government frontbenchers spent the weekend defending Deves, noting the candidate had apologised for her remarks, despite growing concerns among Liberal moderates that her candidacy would prove damaging to the party’s standing with voters in key metropolitan contests.
News stories over the past week have revealed inflammatory comments on various social media platforms including one where Deves equated anti-trans activism to standing up against the Holocaust during a YouTube panel.
Matt Kean, the NSW treasurer and a leading Liberal party moderate, called for Deves to be disendorsed.
Morrison defended Deves on Saturday and said he would not be “joining that pile on” against her.
On Sunday the prime minister sought to further clarify his previously stated support for a private member’s bill proposed by the Tasmanian senator Claire Chandler in relation to single-sex sport.
Morrison said he had never stated it would be a government bill.
“There are many, many different views on this,” Morrison said.
“I am not seeking to bind at all any of my members of parliament on these issues as a party position.”
Chandler has said her bill would clarify that “sporting activity can be operated on the basis of sex”.
However, Australia’s Sex Discrimination Act already says it is legal “to discriminate on the ground of sex, gender identity or intersex status by excluding persons from participation in any competitive sporting activity in which the strength, stamina or physique of competitors is relevant”.
The same North Sydney poll found Zimmerman was sitting on a primary vote of 37.1%, compared with 19.4% for Tink and 17.3% for Labor candidate Catherine Renshaw. The poll also found 8.7% primary vote support for Lynne Saville of the Greens, and 5.6% for Robert Nalbandian from United Australia party.
Parties generally treat individual seat polls with caution, and they only represent sentiment at a point in time rather than predicting an outcome, but the results indicate preferences are likely to be crucial in determining the outcome in North Sydney.
