A new quarterly poll run by ANU will gauge Australian attitudes to major issues and place them in a policy-based international context.

ANU Poll was launched at Parliament House on 16 April in the lead up to the 2020 Summit. The University has allocated $1 million to fund the project over the next five years.

Led by Professor Ian McAllister from the Research School of Social Sciences (RSSS), the poll team used their first outing to ask Australians what they thought were the most important problems facing the nation.

The researchers found that respondents were most likely to be concerned about the environment, followed by the economy, water, and spending for health and education.

"When asked in an open-ended question what are the most important problems facing Australia, 19 per cent of the survey respondents mentioned the environment, including global warming and sustainability," explained poll researcher Associate Professor Andrew Leigh from RSSS. 

"It is clear from these results that the environment has very quickly become a hot issue. As recently as 2004, only 6 percent rated the environment as the most important issue facing the country.

"What is really interesting is that Australians seem to have much greater concern for the environment than the US public, who in a recent poll identified the economy and jobs and the war in Iraq as the biggest problems facing their country. For Americans, the environment did not make the top five issues."

The poll results also suggested that the public favoured increased spending on health and education ahead of the environment, with defence, culture and the arts and unemployment benefits as the most unpopular areas of government spending.

"Our staff have an obligation to inform the public and public date and this is another string to the bow in doing that," Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Chubb said at the launch. "We will be able to provide information to international colleagues," he added.

ACT Senator Kate Lundy, who hosted the launch at Parliament House, said that the international comparisons arising out of the poll would be "critical" for Australia to measure its performance in the global environment.

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