Coalition crashes to new depths as voters ditch Dutton
Lloyd Jones |
Mounting dislike of Peter Dutton has sent the coalition’s primary vote plunging to its lowest level in a leading poll as the election looms large.
The coalition’s primary vote has dropped to 31 per cent, down from 33 per cent last week, the latest YouGov poll provided to AAP shows.
Labor’s primary vote is up 0.5 per cent to 33.5 per cent.
The lowest-ever primary vote the coalition had received in YouGov polling is driven by the opposition leader’s unpopularity, director of public data Paul Smith says.
“The public have clearly made a decision that they don’t want Peter Dutton as prime minister,” he told AAP.
“The coalition is going backwards at a rate of knots.”
The YouGov polling shows Labor leading the coalition by 53.5 per cent to 46.5 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.
Labor’s support is higher than its 2022 federal election result of 52.1 per cent, while the coalition’s is 4.7 per cent lower than it achieved at that election.
Anthony Albanese (50 per cent) has also extended his lead over Mr Dutton (35 per cent) as preferred prime minister.
Mr Dutton’s net satisfaction rating dipped to minus 18 from minus 10 last week while Mr Albanese’s was down slightly to minus seven from minus six.
“Anthony Albanese is for the first time the preferred prime minister amongst all states, amongst women and men and in regional and rural Australia, as well as the capital cities,” Mr Smith said.
A separate poll reinforces the challenge facing Mr Dutton to become prime minister, after he was viewed as the most distrusted politician in the country.
The opposition leader was considered to be 220 per cent more distrustful than Mr Albanese, the Roy Morgan survey shows.
Behind Mr Dutton were Trumpet of Patriots leader Clive Palmer and US President Donald Trump, who had enough respondents nominate him as a distrusted political leader to put him on the list.
YouGov polling shows One Nation could benefit from the slide away from the coalition.
Pauline Hanson’s party is up 3.5 per cent to 10.5 per cent, the Greens are up one to 14 per cent, others are up slightly to four per cent while Trumpets of Patriots are on two per cent unchanged.
“One Nation are benefiting from the collapse of the coalition primary vote,” Mr Smith said.
“It positions them well to probably have their best result in decades.”
The coalition had a strategy of winning in working-class seats but its now-dumped policy of banning public servants from working from home “completely alienated a large group of voters”, Mr Smith said.
The poll results indicated the largest turnaround and rejection of an opposition since 1993, when then coalition leader John Hewson led prime minister Paul Keating in the polls for two years until “it all changed in the campaign”, he said.
The YouGov poll of 1500 voters was conducted between April 17 and Tuesday, with a margin of error of 3.3 per cent.
AAP
