China's influence in the Pacific has become a focal point of the federal election campaign, and new data shows many Australians think the government should be harsher in its dealings with the country.
The ABC's Vote Compass asked whether people agreed Australia should take a tougher stance when dealing with China.
Almost 60 per cent of voters said they agreed (58 per cent), while 24 per cent of people were neutral and 12 per cent said they disagreed.
Sentiment was strongest among Liberal-National voters, 72 per cent of whom said Australia should be tougher on China.
More than half of Labor voters and 47 per cent of people intending to vote Green also agreed.
Lowy Institute analyst Natasha Kassam said the response was likely based on China's military activities, alleged political interference and human rights record.
But she said it was unlikely national security concerns would be a vote changer for most Australians — something backed by previous Vote Compass data, which ranked national security and defence well down the list of issues considered by voters this election.
"I think the majority of voters are going to be more interested in education, the economy, health policy and social issues," she said.
"Having said that, Australians clearly are thinking more about their place in the world, the role that Australia plays, and that will feed into their existing views on who they choose to vote for come election day."
Although many Australians want our government to be harsher on China, Vote Compass data shows people are split on whether we spend enough on our military.
One-third of Australians said they were comfortable with current levels of funding, while 39 per cent would like spending to increase and 22 per cent would like it to decrease.
Coalition voters were most likely to support an increase (65 per cent), followed by people voting for independents or other parties (45 per cent), Labor voters (34 per cent) and Greens (15 per cent).
At the other end, people who vote Green were most likely to support cuts to military spending (43 per cent).
For ALP voters, 38 per cent answered "about the same as now" along with 28 per cent of Coalition voters and 31 per cent of those who intend to vote for Independents or minor parties.
"This comes with challenging circumstances — fears about China, the fact that a war is happening in Europe as we speak," Ms Kassam said.
"At this time, Australians are feeling unsafe and insecure, and they look to military expenditure as one way to bolster their security and resilience at this time."
Vote Compass also asked whether Australia should spend more on foreign aid.
13 per cent of people think Australia should spend less, compared to 39 per cent of people who think spending should stay about the same and 45 per cent of people who think we should spend more.
More than half of Liberal-National Party voters were supportive of foreign aid spending staying about the same (54 per cent), while 21 per cent supported an increase and 22 per cent a decrease.
Almost one-third of Labor Party voters were comfortable with the current rate, 54 per cent supported an increase and 9 per cent a decrease.
One-quarter of Green voters wanted spending to stay the same, 59 per cent supported an increase and 5 per cent a decrease.
Australian National University Development Policy Centre expert Terence Wood said Australians were increasingly in support of foreign aid increases.
"One thing we know is that when we've asked people in our own surveys why they want Australia to give foreign aid, the majority of people want Australia to give aid to help developing countries rather than advance Australia's economic interests," he said.
And when asked about foreign countries being able to lease Australian ports, the answer was overwhelming.
A majority of Australians strongly agree there should be a ban, according to Vote Compass.
There's also agreement along voting lines.
About the data
- Vote Compass responses have been weighted by gender, age, education, language, religion, place of residence and past vote to match the Australian population, creating a nationally representative sample
- The sample size for the report on China is 32,974 respondents and 335,089 respondents for the remaining questions
- Find out more about the methodology in this explainer
