Australian voters’ attitudes to climate action and their social-political determinants

Climate change was a more important issue for progressive voters (79% stated "most impor- tant" or "important") than for conservative voters (30% stated “most important” or “impor- tant”) (Fig 4). Climate change was the most important issue for 21% of Labor voters and 39% of Greens voters, but the most important issue for only 3% of Liberal Party voters, 2.6% of National Party voters, and 1.4% of LNP voters (Table 1). These patterns were broadly mirrored among those who did not consider climate change: 12.6% of Labor and 6.2% of Greens voters, compared to 25.6% of Liberal, 20.8% of National, and 31% of Liberal-National Party voters. Ordinal logistic regression (multivariate) shows as significant political party preference (Greens & Labor p < 0.0001), educational attainment (more education p < 0.0001), and living in an area with lower socio-economic disadvantage (regardless of personal status) (less disad- vantage p = 0.0072) (Fig 5). Additionally a difference was found between residents of NSW and QLD, with NSW residents more likely than residents of QLD to consider climate change in their voting decision (p = 0.0184). However, there were no other differences between resi- dents of any other states/territories, including all other states/territories compared to both QLD and NSW. In univariate analysis, age was significant (p < 0.0001), though it lost significance in multi- variate analysis when it was considered in the context of the other independent variables. This Fig 4. Distribution (by percent of all voters for each of the major political parties) of opinion about the

importance of climate change when determining their vote in the House of Representatives at the 2019 federal election. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248268.g004 Table 1. Percent of voters of each of the main parties indicating the importance of climate change to their vote at the 2019 federal election (Q4). Percentages are within party (within columns). Importance of climate change to vote Political party preference Liberal Party Labor Party Greens National Party Liberal-National Party Most important 3.0 20.7 39.3 2.6 1.4 Important 29.7 54.3 50.8 24.7 12.7 Not very important 23.5 8.7 2.9 24.7 25.4 Not at all important 17.5 3.6 0.8 27.3 28.2 Did not consider 25.6 12.6 6.2 20.8 31.0 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248268.t001 PLOS ONE Australian voters’ attitudes to climate action and their social-political determinants PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248268 March 24, 2021 8 / 18