THE cost of living, unemployment rate, and wages are the top three issues that the Government needs to address.
With elections looming, the latest Tebbutt-Times Poll conducted in May found that the cost of living in the country was an issue for half of the 1053 polled in the national survey.
A resounding 50 per cent of those polled picked cost of living as a “pressing issue” for Government followed by unemployment rate (31 per cent) and wages (28 per cent).
Those polled were asked: l Overall, what do you think are the three most pressing issues for Government; and, l What about for you personally and people like you — what are the biggest issues that you are facing in the coming years? Apart from the three top pressing issues, those polled also mentioned education (14 per cent), land issues (13 per cent), infrastructure (12 per cent), health (11 per cent), and poverty (10 per cent) as urgent issues that the State needed to address.
According to the poll, education was mentioned twice as often by those in the 18-29-year age group (21 per cent) than older respondents (11 per cent).
Also, farming and rural development (8 per cent) was a bigger issue in rural areas and in the Western Division, and crime was mentioned by 7 per cent of those polled.
Topics named by 5 per cent or less were disaster assistance, unity, the economy, the environment, corruption, good governance, political stability, welfare, and human rights.
A total of 5 per cent claimed there were no pressing issues, while 2 per cent were either unsure or declined to answer.
