Morgan: Australians want asylum seekers sent home

UPDATE:

Morgan comes in with the primaries running 48 (up 3.5) / 36.5 (down 0.5) to Labor, washing out into a two party preferred of 58/42 the same way – a 1.5% gain to Labor since last Morgan face to face poll. Greens are on 8.5 (down 2.5) while the broad others are on 7 (down 0.5). This comes from a sample of 1030, giving us an MoE that maxes out around the 3.1% mark.

Ouch.

The latest Morgan poll is out this afternoon sometime and I’ll update the results when they come in – but in the meantime, there was an interesting phone poll released my Morgan yesterday on public opinion over immigration and population size.

It was a relatively small sample jobby of 670, giving us an MoE that maxes out around the 3.8% mark on the headline results. You can see the full results over here. The breakdowns have a larger MoE, so treat them as indicative only.

We’ll do the population question first before we move on to some interesting things with the migration responses. Morgan asked:

Australia’s population has increased by 5 million from 17 million to 22 million over the last 20 years. What population do you think we should aim to have in Australia in 30 years — that is, by 2040?

The headline results and results by vote breakdown look like this:

Greens voters more so than any other party support a much higher population. There’s some interesting food for thought!

There were a number of migration questions asked, so we’ll give them a quick run through before we get to the party breakdowns.

Question 1:
Over the last year (2008/09) about 170,000 immigrants came to Australia. Do you think the number of people coming here to live permanently should be increased, or reduced, or remain about the same?

Question 2:
Judging by what you see and hear, do you think immigrants are changing Australia’s culture and way of life — or having little effect?

For those that responded “change”, the following question was asked:

Do you think immigrants are changing Australia’s culture and way of life for better or for worse?”

Question 3:
Please say whether you support or oppose (Muslim / Asylum seeker/ Skilled migrant/ Family reunion) immigration?

Question 4:
Should asylum seekers arriving by boat be allowed to apply for immigration as now, or should they all be returned and told to apply through normal refugee channels?

The results of that last question pretty much explain the government’s actions on Sri Lanka and Afghanistan today regarding asylum applications from those countries.

Moving on to the results of these questions by party breakdown, I’ve listed the parties in rough order of politically Left to Right – and done so literally left to right. The results reinforce partisan stereotypes more than just about any other set of issues I’ve seen – check out the bell curves on these babies.

Questions 1 and 2: Immigration rate and it’s effect on Australian culture

Question 3: Views in Muslim/Asylum Seeker/Skilled/Family Reunion migration types

The word “family” in that last chart is apparently a positive trigger word for a few Family First voters:

Question 4: Treatment of asylum seekers.

There’s a lot to chew on there, some of it a bit pathetic – but despite any views you may have on some of your fellow Australians over these questions, the responses certainly explain a lot of the politics we see.