A majority of voters support severe measures to tackle the housing crisis including freezing rents, capping migration and using superannuation for housing, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.
The poll of 1,138 people, released on Tuesday, finds support for a range of signature policies of the Greens and Coalition, demonstrating the risk posed to the Albanese government if it is not seen to be doing enough to fight rising rents and property prices.
Half or more of respondents said the housing system was bad for: renters (63%), future generations of Australians (58%) and “Australia as a whole” (50%).
A majority of respondents wanted to: further restrict foreign investment in property (68%), freeze rental increases (60%), cap immigration “until we have sufficient affordable housing” (59%) and allow people to access their super to buy a house (56%). One-fifth or less of respondents opposed those measures.
Exactly half (50%) supported capping the number of investment properties someone can own and about a quarter (23%) opposed.
Since the 2019 election, the Coalition has supported allowing first home buyers to access up to $50,000 of their retirement savings to help buy a home. In the poll, even half of Labor voters (50%) backed the measure.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, and senior ministers have targeted the Albanese government over budget projections that 1.5 million people will come to Australia over the next five years, which Labor has explained is due to increased arrivals after borders reopened and is still less than projected before Covid.
Restricting foreign investment was popular across the political spectrum but capping immigration was more divisive, with: 76% support among independent or minor party voters, 70% support among Coalition voters, 53% among Labor and 44% among Greens.
The Albanese government has put renters’ rights on the agenda at national cabinet but continues to be pushed by the Greens for a rental freeze. The measure gained majority support among supporters of all parties including the Coalition (55%), Labor (61%) and the Greens (64%).
The Essential poll finds some support for Labor’s housing Australia future fund bill, which it explained “aims to invest $10 billion and spend the earnings on building 30,000 affordable homes over the next five years”. Some 41% of respondents said the $10bn investment fund was “about right”, 30% “too little”, 9% “too much” and a further 20% were “unsure”.
Respondents also favoured action on tax concessions including:
57% supporting preventing wealthy families using family trusts to minimise tax, and just 15% opposed
49% supporting only allowing negative gearing on one investment property, and just 17% opposed
47% wanting to tax deceased estates worth more than $5m to fund affordable rentals, and 23% opposed; and
36% supporting removing all negative gearing tax concessions on investment properties and 25% opposed.
Attitudes to the housing system were not all doom and gloom. More than a third (35%) responded that it was “good” for them personally, compared with 29% who said it was bad for them.
Some 44% of respondents said the system was good for “people who already own their home” compared with 20% who said it was bad; and 38% said the same of “people who invest in residential property”, compared with 27% who said it was bad for that group.
The poll also found the government is likely to come under pressure to do more about sports betting ads, with just 16% saying they should be allowed at all times.
More favour banning the ads altogether (43%) – as the crossbench proposes – than favour banning them during matches only (26%). Dutton has called for a ban during matches and an hour either side.
In the midst of heated debate about the proposed Indigenous voice to parliament in the constitution and the fallout over broadcaster Stan Grant standing down as Q+A host over racist abuse after his contribution to the ABC’s coronation coverage, the poll finds deep divisions over race.
Exactly half (50%) say Australia is less racist than in past, unchanged since the question was asked in September 2019. Some 41% said “Australia is a racist country”, up five points in that time.
Two-thirds (67%) of respondents said “people are scared to say what they really think because they don’t want to be labelled as racist”, also up five points.
Almost a third (32%) said “a member of my family has experienced racism or racial discrimination”, up from 29%. A similar proportion (31%) said they had personally experienced racism.
On most of these measures men and women had roughly similar attitudes, although men were more likely than women to say Australia was less racist than in past, 53% to 47%. They were also more likely than women to have personally experienced racism, with 33% of men and 29% of women reporting that they had.
