Community safety is viewed as under threat and ethnic tension as increasing after months of conflict in the Middle East, with 61 per cent of surveyed voters saying Australia is suffering from more racism and religious intolerance.
The new findings heighten concerns about social cohesion after the knife attack and riot at a Sydney church last week and show that 46 per cent of people feel the war in Gaza has made Australia less safe.
A clear majority want the federal government to take a neutral stance on the wider conflict: 62 per cent said Australia should stay out of the most recent escalation in aerial bombardments between Israel and Iran.
The exclusive survey, conducted for The Age by Resolve Strategic, confirms previous polling about the reluctance of Australians to take sides even as the ACTU calls for greater support for Palestinians in Gaza while other groups step up their support for Israel.
Two weeks after Foreign Minister Penny Wong raised the idea of recognising a Palestinian state without waiting for a deal to be agreed with Israel, only 20 per cent of voters said Australia should act before a two-state solution.
The Resolve Political Monitor surveyed 1610 people from April 17 to 21, a schedule set before news broke about the knife attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and others at the Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley, Sydney, on April 15.
Concern about Australia being less safe rose from 36 per cent of respondents in November to 40 per cent in March and 46 per cent in the April survey.
Asked if there was a rise in racism and religious intolerance in Australia as a result of the Israel-Gaza conflict, 57 per cent agreed in March and 61 per cent agreed in April. Those who disagreed shrank from 15 to 12 per cent. The rest were unsure.
Voters were asked in the next question if they believed there was an increase in antisemitism or Islamophobia. Thirty-three per cent said there was more antisemitism and 15 per cent said there was more Islamophobia. Another 52 per cent said they were unsure or believed there was an equal increase in both problems.
With Liberals arguing for stronger support for Israel and the Greens calling for immediate recognition of a Palestinian state, the Resolve Political Monitor confirmed the domestic political divide on the Middle East.
While 47 per cent of Coalition voters thought there was more antisemitism, only 11 per cent of them thought there was more Islamophobia. Greens voters were evenly divided, with 20 per cent saying there was more antisemitism and 20 per cent saying more Islamophobia. The figures were 24 per cent and 16 per cent respectively among Labor voters.
The clear majority support in the latest survey on questions about the Middle East was for a neutral stance.
Asked about the war in Gaza, 57 per cent said Australia should take no action. This compared with 45 per cent who chose ‘‘no action’’ on the same question in November.
On this question, 17 per cent said Australia should declare inprinciple support for Israel, down from 31 per cent in November. Another 9 per cent said Australia should declare in-principle support for Gaza, up from 7 per cent.