Nothing more than a straw in the wind, but an Essential poll put out today reports 41 per cent who think that Australia’s relationship with the United States is becoming worse, 6 per cent who think it is becoming better and 44 per cent who think it is staying about the same. Labor and Green voters were most likely to think the relationship was getting worse but 35 per cent of Coalition voters fell into this category, too.
Another question asked respondents which countries they thought it was important for Australia to have close relations with. The United States and the United Kingdom (both with 47 per cent of respondents believing it was ‘very important’ to have close relations with these countries) came out on top, followed by China with 43 per cent, then Japan (30 per cent) and Indonesia and Canada (both 25 per cent). Six years ago, the figure for the United States was 60 per cent.
The survey was conducted online from the 24 to 27 March 2017 and is based on 1016 respondents. The margin of error is around three per cent.
28 March 2017
