A high profile community campaign on fish farming has put economic and employment issues in the spotlight. New polling release today asked residents of Lyons about the industry’s performance on modernising in order to protect jobs into the future.

“It is clear from these results that even those who back the industry believe that fish farming companies need to invest in modernising the sector to ensure that jobs are not put under threat,” said Leanne Minshull Director The Australia Institute Tasmania.

Over half of voters (53.7%) said the fish-farming industry is risking jobs by not future-proofing the sector, while voters were again split on whether the industry has too much influence on government (35.0%), about the right amount of influence (33.0%) or not enough influence (5.5%) with about a quarter of voters (23.3%) unsure about its influence.

“The fish farming industry and its practices will remain an election issue in Lyons, with half of voters concerned about its jobs in the long term, while one third think the industry has a negative effect on other fishing industries,” said Minshull.

Less than one in five (16.9%) voters saying the industry has a positive effect on other fishing industries, while around one third (33.5%) say it has a negative effect and almost one third (29.7%) are unsure about its effect.

Lambie up, Liberal support down

The survey also shows support for the Liberals at 39.5%, a 12 point drop from its 2014 election result. The Labor (29.1%) and Greens (11.3%) vote remains steady, while the Jacquie Lambie Network is on (8.4%).

“The big winner in this poll appears to be the Jacqui Lambie Network who polled 8.4% despite not having preselected a candidate. If you factor in the preference of those voters who were undecided, Jacqui Lambie has the support of 1 in 10 voters in Lyons,” said Minshull.

Question: