Debt is also another term that has risen quickly. In fact, it was completely absent from the lists last year which were compiled before the various government stimulus packages.

This table shows our poll results and how the issues have moved over the last 7 months.

Another significant move is in the decrease in mentions of Financial and Crisis. It seems that more respondents are looking inwards at how we manage our economy (Management makes its first appearance on this list), rather than outwards. This implies that voters are starting to see Australia more as in command of its own destiny rather than a passive recipient of circumstances created abroad.

When you dissect these issues by voting intention it helps to explain the position of the government and opposition. While both Labor and Liberal voters are concerned about the Economy, for Labor voters the next most important issue is Jobs, followed by Global and then Change. For Liberal voters it is Economy, followed by Debt, then Jobs. Change, as in climate change is a concern for less than 2% of them.

So Labor voters are still very concerned about climate change and are more inclined to blame the crisis for our problems, while Liberal voters are fretting about debt, are less worried about their jobs and have climate change almost at the bottom of their list of concerns.

The Leximancer Map below gives an overview of how the issues work together.

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