Via The Guardian:
Labor continues to lead the Coalition in the head-to-head political contest but is in a less comfortable position than a fortnight ago. Labor is now ahead 52% to the Coalition’s 48% compared with 54% to 46% in mid-March, with that movement in the two-party preferred measure within the poll’s margin of error.
…The latest Guardian Essential poll suggests the political debate on the measure could go either way.
The survey suggests most people know very little about dividend imputation and franking credits, with only 7% reporting they know a lot about the system and 14% a fair amount. More than half the sample had either never heard of dividend imputation and franking credits or had heard of the current system but didn’t know anything about it.
Voters who know something about franking credits were slightly more likely to oppose Labor’s policy, while 65% of those who receive cash refunds were opposed. Voters over 65 (57%) and Coalition voters (47%) were most likely to oppose Labor’s policy to axe cash rebates.
Groups supportive include Labor voters (48%), Greens voters (46%), younger voters aged between 18-34 (41%) and people with incomes over $2,000 per week (41%).
A majority of voters agreed with the statements “paying people money to compensate for tax they haven’t paid does not make sense” (68%), “the $6bn per year spend on these tax credits would be better used funding spending on schools and hospitals” (64%) and “the $6bn per year spend on these cash refunds would be better used to stop the pension age from being increased to age 70” (60%).
But people who professed knowledge about dividend imputation were much more likely to agree with the statement “retirees receiving cash refunds should not have their payments reduced, no matter how wealthy they are” (60%).
This group was also more likely to disagree that the money saved by Labor’s policy would be better used funding schools and hospitals (40%), stopping the pension age from being increased to 70 (42%), cutting the budget deficit (45%) and funding income tax cuts (50%).
This is an absolute policy no-brainer so if Labor can’t win this debate we’re all doomed.
