An overwhelming majority of Australian voters want an independent, national anti-corruption body, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll, and a significant majority want that body in place sooner rather than later.
With the Morrison government on Monday unveiling a proposal for an integrity commission but imposing a six-month timeframe for public consultation, the latest Guardian Essential survey shows 81% of the sample of 1,063 respondents wants an anti-corruption watchdog, including 88% of Coalition voters polled, and 60% wants it established now rather than delayed because of the pandemic.
Under pressure to explain the delay given that the government has been mulling the federal integrity body since 2018, the Coalition argued during the last parliamentary sitting it was difficult to proceed to implementation in the middle of a public health crisis.
The prime minister declared he did not want any public servants diverted from managing the pandemic, but the government’s preferred model was unveiled by the attorney general, Christian Porter, in Canberra on Monday.
As well as providing the readout on public attitudes to an anti-corruption body, the latest Guardian Essential survey suggests Australians remain happy with the way governments are navigating the Covid-19 crisis.
Approval of the Morrison government’s coronavirus response remains steady at 61% and a rebound is evident in the two states battling the most risk – Victoria and New South Wales.
Now that Victoria has flattened the curve of new infections, and with stringent lockdown restrictions in the state now easing, support for the government’s management of the crisis is up 1- points in a fortnight, climbing from 45% to 55% – the most positive result since June.
Daniel Andrews has also seen his approval rating increase from 54% to 61%. His disapproval rating stands at 33%, which is down seven points, but the Victorian premier’s negatives are higher than his colleagues in other states.
The NSW government has also tracked back to the high ratings of June, with approval at this fortnight at 68%. Gladys Berejiklian has maintained her own approval ratings over the past fortnight at 68%, despite controversy about the premier’s undisclosed relationship with the disgraced state MP Daryl Maguire.
The survey shows that as Queenslanders went to the polls on Saturday, voter approval of Annastacia Palaszczuk’s Covid response stood at 65%. Palaszczuk prevailed in Saturday night’s election and Labor will form a majority government in the state.
Voters in the survey were also asked for their views on US politics now that the presidential race has entered its final 24 hours.
The poll suggests Australians would prefer that the Democrat Joe Biden, the vice-president in the Obama administration, emerge as the victor on Wednesday Australian time after the bitterly contested period of Trump’s rise to power.
While 51% of the sample wants Biden in the White House after the 3 November election, 26% of the sample would prefer Donald Trump was re-elected for another term, and 24% of the sample were unsure of their preference.
Biden is preferred by progressive voters (60% support from Labor voters in the survey and 72% of Greens) and women (52%). Just under half the Coalition voters in the sample (44%) preferred Biden to the incumbent.
Men are more likely than women to favour another term for the Republican, and the president enjoys support from 38% of Coalition voters in the sample, 20% of Labor voters and 25% of voters who report supporting a non-major party.
Voters were asked to assign attributes to the presidential candidates. Trump was seen by majorities in the sample as aggressive (72%), arrogant (73%) and erratic (67%), whereas Biden was more likely to be viewed as understanding the problems facing the US (51%), intelligent (50%) and hard-working (48%).
While Scott Morrison has worked hard to keep an open line of communication with the Trump White House, voters in the survey are more likely to think Biden will strengthen America’s relationship with Australia compared with a second-term Trump administration.
But voters value the relationship with Australia’s most important security ally sufficiently to not be overly perturbed by who the president is. Almost three-quarters of respondents say it is important for Morrison to have a good relationship with the president, whomever they might be, because that’s in Australia’s national interest (72%).
But majorities of respondents this fortnight also think Trump has been bad for the US, with 65% believing the Republican has been detrimental to the country’s reputation, and only 32% believe the Trump presidency has been beneficial for Australia.
