Opinion Polls and Surveys Showing Support for the Abolition of State Governments or Similar Reforms


Most Favor End of State Parliaments, Australia Speaks No. 47, 9 June 1942

ABC Unleashed - IQ2 debate
2020 Unleashed - Get rid of the states, 16 April 2008
Abolish State Governments, 28 May 2009
See especially:
A thought-provoking and entertaining debate, with some interesting outcomes. The pre-debate poll was 67 per cent for the motion, 18 per cent against and 15 per cent undecided. After the hearty arguments from both sides the results were announced: 54 per cent for, 33 per cent against and 13 per cent undecided.

A Sydney Morning Herald poll carried out in conjunction with the IQ2 debate as above generated the following responses to the question "Should state government be abolished?":
Yes - 81%
No - 15%
Not sure - 4%
Total Votes: 2698  Poll date: 26/05/09

Study reveals Australians waiting for more federal reform, Griffith University media alert, 2 July 2008
Griffith University ‘Constitutional Values’ Survey, Preliminary Results – 3 July 2008
The use of the words "federal" and "federalism" in the reports on these Griffith University survey results are explained here.


The Australia Institute
Seven in 10 Australians support a Commonwealth takeover of public hospitals, and similarly with education and other functions, according to polling released by the Australia Institute on 28 July 2009

The Land newspaper carried out a poll from 9 September 2009 until 16 September 2009 which generated the following responses to the question "Do you think it's time to reform our system of government?", from a total of 495 votes:
No, there's nothing wrong with the current system.  (2.0%)
Yes - get rid of the States, and beef up local government.  (70.3%)
Yes, but not drastically. Keep the States, and redefine responsibilities.  (21.0%)
Not sure - it's not perfect now, but changing could be worse.  (6.7%)

Sydney Morning Herald Online Survey Showing that 77 per cent of Respondents Believe the Federal Government Should Run Australia's Hospital System
as published on Saturday 1 August 2009, on page 8 of the News Review section

Queensland voters want to axe state MPs, by Steven Wardill, Courier Mail, 24 June 2009
The accompanying online poll shows that as at 23 August 2009:
Responses to the question "Is Australia over-governed?" were:
Yes             94% (3910 votes)
No                 4% (195 votes)
Undecided   0% (37 votes)
Total votes: 4142 as at 23 August 2009
Responses to the question "Which tier of government should be abolished?" were:
Local         10% (189 votes)
State          85% (1577 votes)
Federal        2% (43 votes)
Undecided  1% (36 votes)
Total votes: 1845 as at 23 August 2009
Responses to the question "Should Australia hold a referendum to abolish the states?" were:
Yes              91% (1434 votes)
No                  7% (120 votes)
Undecided    0% (12 votes)
Total votes: 1566 as at 23 August 2009

A 2GB radio online survey generated the following responses to the question "How many levels of government do we need in Australia?" as at 23 August 2009:
13%  Federal & State
 67% Federal & Local
 1%   State & Local
 8%   Federal only
 11% The current system works fine

Former mayor says state govts not needed, by Peter Gardiner and Bill Hoffman, Sunshine Coast Daily, 1 September 2009
An online poll accompanying this article, ending 4 September 2009, asked Has state govt become redundant?, and generated the following responses:
No, state government has a major role.          11%
Yes, Australia has become over-governed.     77%
Not yet, but it is fast becoming so.                 10%


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