Oz Politics Blog

To help with the next redevelopment of the Australian Politics Test, I have added a page with an analysis of the answers to individual questions by self-reported party preference. Because some of the questions have changed over time, the analysis only considers the 1000 most recent responses from people living in Australia of voting age.

Take a look. There are some unexpected surprises.

• Question 1 — All third world debt should be cancelled — while the left splits roughly 80-20 in favour as I expected them to, the right only splits roughly 60-40 against
• Question 2 — There is too much nudity and explicit sexual material on television — another question where the left split as I expected them to, but the right less so
• Question 4 — Government should increase taxes so that it can do more for its citizens — Here the left had a higher disagreement (roughly 60-40) than I expected
• Question 5 — Abortion is murder — The Liberal party split against (66-34) was higher than I had expected
• Question 6 — People who enter Australia illegally and who claim to be a refugee should be detained for a time while their claims are assessed — The Greens only managed a disagreement of 65-35. I expected higher
• Question 7 — Governments should do more to help the small business sector — The 20-80 support split pretty well across the board, including from the Greens was unexpected — this question may need to go as it does not help discriminate political preference
• Question 8 — The government should pay people to care for their children and elderly parents — the low level of disagreement (60-40) from the Liberals surprised me — it looks like middle class welfare is a vote winner
• Question 10 — Governments should identify and regulate things that might be harmful to people — Another question where the splits are roughly the same across the party spectrum (40-60) — this question may need to go as it does not help discriminate political preference
• Question 11 — The government should do more to protect the rights of workers — Another surprise with a majority of Liberals supporting the statement (and it appears contradictory to the results for Question 3, ‘Employers need a lot of flexibility when it comes to hiring and firing staff’, which got strong support from the Liberals)
• Question 17 — For a political party, refining its policy position on the basis of opinion polls and talk-back-radio is a good thing — splits ranged from 60-40 against to 50-50 — this question may need to go as it does not help discriminate political preference
• Question 24 — The government should set quotas and fine large companies that do not employ a sufficient proportion of people with a disability or women in senior management positions — did not get the level of support from the left I was anticipating (only the Greens split for at 49-51)
• Question 25 — As a general principle, school teachers should be paid bonuses and promoted on the basis of their students’ performance — with the way the Teachers’ Union has carried on I had expected higher disagreement from the left (only 60-40) — I also expected higher agreement from the right (rather than 50-50) — this question may need to go as it does not help discriminate political preference
• Question 26 — Protecting the environment is more important than providing social welfare services to people in need — I did not expect Green voters to disagree with this proposition (roughly 60-40) — this question may need to go as it does not help discriminate political preference
• Question 32 — The Medicare scheme should be restricted to people on low incomes — With all parties opposed this question may need to go as it does not help discriminate political preference
• Question 35 — The government should establish a national filtering scheme to protect children from pornography on the Internet — I did not expect Labor to split in favour 40-60
• Question 37 — Banks should be required to provide customers with basic fee-free accounts – I did not expect the Liberals to split in favour 40-60
• Question 39 — Voting at elections should be compulsory — with broad cross party support this question may need to go as it does not help discriminate political preference

Update 25 April 2006: The questions have been tweaked and re-scored. I will review the test again at 12,000 hits.