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State of the Nation Report 4 - Presented by Michele Levine, CEO Roy Morgan Research

Live Webcast available here 8:15am Wednesday May 27, 2009

To see in-depth research into the most important Environmental Issues facing Australia & The World see the latest results here:

Economic issues are seen by 51% (up 14% since November 2008) of Australians as the single most important problem facing the World today, ahead of the Environment at 21% (down 5%) and Terrorism and Security issues at 9% (down 2%) and Social issues, 6% (down 3%) a special Roy Morgan survey on what concerns Australians finds.

The economy is also seen as the biggest problem facing Australia today by 51% (up 21% since November 2008) of Australians, ahead of Environmental issues 17% (down 8%) and Social issues 6% (down 5%).

Over the last few months economic issues have come more to the fore as worries about unemployment and economic problems have risen as the “Global Financial Crisis” has dominated the headlines.

Looking back four years ago to 2005 Terrorism, Wars, Security and Safety were seen by 52% (now 7%) of Australians as the most important problem facing the World — ahead of Economic issues (16%, now 51%), and Environmental issues (12%, now 21%). Even for Australia, Terrorism, Wars, Security and Safety issues was seen as the biggest problem (21%, now only 1%) ahead of Environmental issues (15%, now 17%), and Economic issues (14%, now 51%).

Just a year ago, in early 2008, before news of the “Global Financial Crisis” dominated the media, the Environment had moved to first place. As a World problem, 35% of Australians (up from 12% in 2005) considered the Environment the biggest problem, ahead of Economic issues (24%) and Terrorism, Wars, Safety and Security (14%, down from 52% in 2005).

A year ago 30% of Australians considered the Environment the biggest problem facing Australia, ahead of Economic issues (23%) and Social issues such as Education, Drugs, and other societal problems (11%). By 2008, concerns about Terrorism were only seen as a major issue facing Australia by 3% (down 18%).

Michele Levine says:

“The economic turmoil of the past 6 months has left a deep impression on many Australians. Today more than half (51%) of Australians now nominate Economic Issues as the most important problem facing both the World and Australia.

“Just over a year ago, in March 2008, only 23% of Australians nominated Economic Issues as the most important problem facing Australia, this rose to 30% by November 2008 and has steadily risen to 51% over the past six months as worries about unemployment in Australia have jumped from 1% to 11% in the same time period.

“Although Environment Issues have slipped during the past year, 17% of Australians still maintain it as the most important problem facing Australia — up from 15% in 2005 and just 8% in 2006.”

Respondents were asked:  “Firstly, what do you think is the most important problem facing the World today?” and “What do you think is the most important problem facing Australia today?”

These findings come from a special Roy Morgan survey conducted in Australia on attitudes towards issues facing the World and Australia in the future. In Australia, a cross-section of 684 men and women aged 14 or over were interviewed by telephone on May 20-21, 2009.

The research conducted was both qualitative (in that people were asked to use their own words) and quantitative (in that the ‘open-ended’ responses were analysed and ‘coded’ so that the results could be counted and reported as percentages).

For further information:

Gary Morgan:     Office +61 3 9224 5213 Mobile +61 411 129 094

Michele Levine:   Office +61 3 9224 5215 Mobile +61 411 129 093

Table 1: Most important problem facing the world and Australia

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