More than twice as many voters support parliament passing the federal government’s two stranded housing bills as want them blocked, including a majority of Greens voters, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.
The survey of 1,117 voters found that 48% believe the Greens and Coalition should pass the Labor government’s Help to Buy and Build to Rent legislation, and argue for their own policies at the next federal election. Overall support for blocking the bills was at 22%, with 30% unsure and a margin of error of about 2%.
Of the self-declared Greens voters within the survey, 55% believed the bills should be passed. With a margin of error of 9.7% on a sample of that size, that figure could be as high as 64.3% and no lower than 45.3%. The poll found 21% of Greens voters supported blocking the bills and 24% were unsure.
Among those surveyed who described themselves as Coalition voters, more than a third – 37% – favoured passing the bills, 32% backed blocking them and 31% were unsure.
Support for passing the bills was at 62% among surveyed Labor voters, with 16% opposed and 22% unsure.
The findings come after a fiery Senate-only parliamentary week last week, in which the Help to Buy bill was deferred for another two months with neither the Coalition nor the Greens willing to support it in its current form and the government unwilling to amend it. In the middle of the stalemate, and after the Build to Rent bill had been shunted to a parliamentary inquiry earlier in the year, the prime minister left open the possibility of going to a double-dissolution election if the Senate repeatedly refused to pass the legislation.
Asked if he was willing to take that step on the housing bills, Anthony Albanese chose not to rule it out.
“Well, we’ll wait and see,” the prime minister told journalists.
This week’s Essential poll has found a majority of surveyed voters support the Build to Rent policy which would provide tax incentives to encourage housing development that has a portion dedicated to being rented out at “affordable” rates, or 75% of the relevant market rate.
Among Greens voters, support was at 60% with just 13% opposed, nearing the levels for Labor voters, who were 67% in favour and 8% opposed. Among the surveyed Coalition voters, there was also majority support at 54% in favour and 19% opposed.
Support was slightly lower for the Help to Buy shared-equity scheme, in which the government would help eligible applicants enter the housing market by underwriting the purchase price. The poll found 49% of all surveyed voters supported that proposal and 18% opposed it.
Among Greens voters, support was at 53% with 18% opposed, and 43% of Coalition voters supported the proposed scheme, with 25% opposed. Support was strongest among Labor voters at 59%, with 12% opposed.
Albanese has railed against both the Coalition and Greens for refusing to back the measures, now calling them both the “Noalition”.
Essential’s regular survey of approval and disapproval of Albanese as prime minister and Peter Dutton as opposition leader found support had increased slightly for Albanese, from 40% in August to 42% this month, with disapproval still higher at 47% but down from 50% last month.
Dutton’s approval rating remained steady at 42% – his disapproval rating was also 42%, up slightly from 41% in August.
Voters were also surveyed on their attitudes to restricting children’s access to social media and on other government proposals on managing information online.
Support for a ban for children within an as-yet-unspecified age range between 14 and 16 was strong at 67% with 17% saying they were opposed.
But only 12% believed the proposed social media ban would stop children using social media, with 53% saying it would be somewhat effective but that only some children will be stopped and others would find a loophole and 36% believing it would be ineffective and most children would find ways around it.
At 71%, a substantial majority favoured the proposed creation of a new criminal offence for “doxing”, or maliciously publishing someone’s personal details, with only 17% opposing the idea.
Asked if they believed Australian law adequately protected their privacy, 47% of respondents said they did not, 27% believed their privacy was well enough protected and 26% were unsure.
There was considerable backing for specific measures to strengthen privacy. Support was strongest for tougher rules on companies collecting and storing personal data, at 78%. It was at 77% for giving those whose data has been misused enforceable rights, 75% for explicit rules around the use of facial recognition technology and 74% for stricter requirements on digital platforms to address dangerous disinformation.
