The voters of Cunningham are the keenest in the Illawarra for greater government action on climate change, a major new analysis of polling data has found.
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And at least two-thirds of people across the region want the government to do more, with similar numbers nominating climate change as an important, or the most important, election issue.
Cunningham, the northern Wollongong seat held by Sharon Bird, had 70 per cent of voters thinking the Government should do more on climate, with 37 per cent saying "much more". This put Cunningham above the national average of 67 per cent.
The southern electorate of Whitlam, held by Stephen Jones, was found to have 65 per cent of voters who want more action - with 32 per cent in Whiltlam wanting "much more".
The results are contained in analysis of polling of 15,000 Australians conducted by research firm YouGov for the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF).
More than 15,000 Australian voters were polled with the results crunched using YouGov's "multilevel regression with poststratification" (MRP) analysis. MRP is based on the idea that people with similar characteristics tend to share common attributes and attitudes.
In the seat of Cunningham, Wombarra father-of-two Matthew Steffen, 49, said the community wants more action.
"Most definitely - and the statistics seem to support this even more," he said.
"The Federal Government been wasting so much time for so many years playing politics and denial - there's a massive feeling that we're burning while these people fiddle away."
Steffen said the results were stronger than past referenda on national issues.
"That's a lot - it's what many people are talking about," he said.
"In this country it's difficult to get that level of consensus on anything.
"To have that sort of result around here, where a lot of industries are reliant on fossil fuels, is even more interesting."
On whether climate change is an important issue for the next election, Cunningham had 41 per cent who said it was, with 27 per cent nominating it as the most important issue.
Voters in Whitlam delivered a 25 per cent rating for climate change being the most important issue, while 38 per cent said it was important but not No.1.
Asked whether coal and/or gas should be included in the mix for future energy production, Cunningham registered 23 percent, and Whitlam 25 per cent.
This polling shatters the myth there's one view in the bush about climate ... and another in the city
- Kelly O'Shanassy, ACF
"This poll reveals a groundswell of voters prioritising climate change as a key election issue in response to longer droughts and heatwaves, devastating bushfires and damaging floods," ACF Chief Executive Officer Kelly O'Shanassy said.
"This polling shatters the myth there's one view in the bush about climate change and another in the city.
"One in three voters in inner metro electorates and one in four voters in rural electorates say climate change is the most important issue (at) the next election.
"The poll shows Australians reject the government's gas-led recovery. Australia is a diverse nation but united in our desire for climate action."
The region's top climate action sceptic electorate is to the south, where Gilmore had 12 per cent who thought the Government was "doing too much" on climate change, one of the highest in the nation.
YouGov says its MRP combines data such as population density, education and household income with polling to construct an estimate of a geographical area.
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