Poll asks Australians if Canberra should be dumped as capital

Those are the views of Australian voters, a new poll has revealed.

While there is no current push to shift Australia's seat of democracy (unless Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack is up to something he's not telling us about), progressive think tank The Australia Institute decided to test the temperature of the electorate on moving the country's capital elsewhere.

About two-thirds of 1434 respondents rejected the idea, with only 17 per cent supportive of dumping Canberra after more than 100 years as our nation's capital.

Greens-aligned voters were the most in favour of finding a new capital - an exercise which would undoubtedly come at eyewatering cost, require navigation of innumerable bureaucratic barriers and spark open political warfare across the country.

Respondents were not given options for an alternative capital city, which - if offered - might have skewed the results.

The survey respondents, from across Australia, also wanted to see politicians spend more time in their national capital.

Almost half agreed Scott Morrison and his successors as prime minister should live in the Lodge, compared to just 19 per cent who disagreed.

Some 54 per cent believed all federal politicians should spend more time in Canberra, rather than making a beeline for the airport as soon as (if not before) parliament rises for the week.

There was even more support for federal parliament to sit more frequently, with 69 per cent wanting more days set aside for legislation to be debated and question time antics to be had.

The Australia Institute executive director Ben Oquist said Canberra was "built to unite the country" and the leaders of the country should want to be associated with it.

"Its [Canberra's] relative isolation is not snobbery, but a compromise between New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia that made federation possible," Mr Oquist said.

"To treat the seat of democracy with scorn is to treat democracy with scorn. With trust in democracy under assault, we need to boost confidence in our public and democratic institutions, not undermine them.

"Deriding the 'Canberra bubble' and eschewing the Lodge sends the exact opposite message.

"If the prime minister wanted to recognise the good work that the public service and parliament do, he could embrace Canberra and what it has to offer all Australians. The public service is apolitical and expert, 'frank and fearless'; it serves every Australian. Prime ministers should want to be associated with it."

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