The survey of 1,514 adults carried out by the Anglican Church charity Anglicare also found that nearly two-thirds of Australians had little or no confidence in government's ability to confront the dangers facing them.

"Around 60 percent of the population feel that a large increase in crime in Australia is likely, that an international terrorist attack is imminent, and that cloning and genetic modification of foods are likely to have disastrous, unintended impacts," Anglicare said in a summary of its study.

The study, released ahead of general elections on October 9, found that environmental fears ranked among the top reasons for Australians' feelings of insecurity.

Asked what they thought was "likely" or "very likely" to happen over the next five years, 73 percent said there would be significant worsening of air pollution, 72 percent expect big losses in farmland due to salinity and 61 percent cited negative effects of global warming.

"In comparison, 60 per cent of Australians thought there would be a terrorist attack on Australian soil over the next five years," the study said.

"Our conclusion from this survey is that there are high levels of insecurity in Australian society," said Philip Hughes, a researcher at Edith Cowan University in Perth who conducted the study for Anglicare.

Hughes said the finding on voters' growing concerns about the environment contrasted with a relative lack of attention to the issue during the election campaign, which pits the conservative coalition of Prime Minister John Howard against the center-left Labor Party led by Mark Latham.

"This issue has so far not been picked up strongly in the run up to the election," he said.

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