Jobs and the economy will play a greater role than ever in helping Illawarra voters pick a candidate at next month’s election, according the IRIS Research director Simon Pomfret.
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Releasing new polling results gathered late last year, he said electors - especially men - from the Wollongong, Shellharbour and Kiama would place more emphasis on employment than in previous elections.
‘‘I think this time around jobs and the economy has certainly stood up a lot more than in the previous election, probably because we were in better economic times,’’ Mr Pomfret said.
‘‘It also seems like men are putting much more focus on the economy than women - which might be because job losses have been more targeted to the mining and manufacturing sector.’’
Forty-five per cent of men surveyed by IRIS said jobs and the economy was a major issue ahead of the March 28 election, while only 31 per cent of women named the issues as important.
The results, based on phone interviews with about 400 people late last year, also showed that health and education continue to be important for most people.
‘‘Overall, the results show that people seem to be worried about employment and how we’re travelling, but they do recognise the importance of getting the right infrastructure in place in the health and education areas,’’ Mr Pomfret said.
Overall 43 per cent of respondents said health was important and 41 per cent said health and hospitals was a major issue.
More than half the Liberal voters said the economy was significant, while 48 per cent of Labor voters named both health and education as a major election issue.
Unsurprisingly, 65 per cent of Greens voters named the environment as the most important issues, while 24 per cent said coal seam gas and mining, as well as public transport, were inportant.
Independent voters said education, health and the economy were most important.
IRIS researchers also asked people who they would vote for - with Labor coming out the clear winner across all local government areas.
However Mr Pomfret warned these results were inconclusive, as the survey had not been conducted within electorates and some candidates had not yet been declared.
Gordon Bradbery, who has now confirmed he will not run for state parliament, was named by a number of people as their preferred independent candidate.
