SYDNEY, March 3, 2019 – Global warming and the environment is now the number one issue for Australians with one in four saying it was the most influential issue when deciding their vote.A uComms/ReachTel national poll of 2134 respondents, commissioned by Greenpeace Australia Pacific and released today showed the issue had overtaken the economy, and health and hospitals to be the topic most likely to decide the respondents’ vote.
The polling also showed 61.6 percent of people thought the Liberal government were not doing enough to lower Australia’s climate emissions, and 55 percent would be less likely to vote for a party that used taxpayer money to subsidise privately owned coal projects.
“Less than one week after Prime Minister Scott Morrison released a reheated version of Tony Abbott’s failed plan to reduce emissions, voters have not only rejected it, they’re also indicating that global warming and the environment are now the number one factors deciding their vote,” Greenpeace Australia Pacific CEO, David Ritter, said.
“While most of our dirty ageing coal-burning power stations will soon be retired and renewable energy is booming, Australians are looking for leadership to speed up the energy transition.
“They have seen through Morrison’s zombie program and no plan at all to tackle coal or encourage renewable energy. Two out of three Australian voters now recognise the Liberal party has no serious plan to curb emissions.
“This summer’s bushfires and floods and the mass deaths of fish in the Darling River should serve as a major warning to politicians on all sides of Parliament that we need far greater ambition.”
Ritter said any government which allocated taxpayers’ money to private coal projects such as the Vales Point Power Station would be punished by voters at the upcoming federal election.
“Coal is a huge driver of global warming and global warming is now the number one issue for voters,” Ritter said.
“More than half of those polled said they would be less likely to vote for a party that gifts public money to private coal projects such as Vales Point Coal Power Station.
“This must be a wakeup call to the coal huggers in the Coalition that the people will not stand for their fetishisation of a dangerous, dirty, and high-polluting power source that belongs in the past.
“The Australian public are seeing the impacts of climate change in unprecedented heat, unseasonal floods and fires, and scorching droughts. Any political party who want to lead us into the future must have a credible plan for tackling these issues.”
Poll results
For interviews contact:
Martin Zavan
Greenpeace Australia Pacific Communications Campaigner
0424 295 422 / [email protected]