Findings at a glance

Water availability and the related subject of climate change is the primary issue facing the

community. It has jumped ahead of all other issues - the economy, terrorism, education, health - with

surprising rapidity. The full implications of this rapid rise are yet to be seen.

For the overwhelming majority of participants cotton is not on the radar as an issue.

Overall, respondents had mildly negative to neutral perceptions of the cotton industry. They know

little about cotton. Their default position veers towards negative because of the perceived excessive

use of water, but they are not negative towards the cotton industry itself.

Perceptions of the cotton industry are based on very little knowledge - so are lightly held

Once they are given more information about cotton, nearly all respondents became more positive

The strongest messages supporting cotton relate to job creation, contribution to the economy

world's best practice and improved water efficiencies and reduced chemical usage.

There is a widespread view that cotton farming has a long term future in Australia. However,

people do want to see evidence of more efficient use of water and investigation into new drought

resistant strains of cotton.

Most respondents support some kind of public education campaign to help combat negative

perceptions.

However, the research as a whole shows that this is risky as most people automatically turn

negative when they hear that cotton uses a lot of water and it takes focused reading and

discussion to educate most of them back to a positive standpoint. In the real world this would

be a formidable and very costly task given the complexity of the issue.