Labor’s reputation on key policy issues has significantly deteriorated with voters, today’s Essential Report finds, and the leadership issue is emerging as another key negative as the party faces the final sitting weeks of the year.
Labor’s primary vote has slipped a point to 35%, ending the fairly small recovery it has enjoyed in recent weeks. The Coalition remains on 47% and the Greens on 8%, leaving the two-party preferred outcome at 54%-46%.
Last week, Essential asked its semi-regular questions around issues that most influences voters, and the results are a marked change from what has been a relatively steady set of outcomes for that question for several years. Whereas economic management has traditionally scored over 60% as an influential issue, that has fallen to 47%. The next most influential issue, health, has also fallen, from 52% in February to 45% now. Australian jobs and protection of local industries, which also traditionally scored highly, fell from 40% to 34%. And education, which at one point in 2012 was rated as an important issue by a third of voters, has fallen to 25% despite the government’s focus on the Gosnki reforms.
What’s increased? Political leadership has gone from 14% in February back to 22%. Treatment of asylum seekers has nearly doubled from 6% to 11%.
Moreover, the Coalition’s lead as the party trusted to handle these issues has increased, often significantly, and on those few issues where Labor led, its lead has shrunk. On economic management, the Coalition now leads Labor by 18 points, up from 15 points in February. The Coalition’s lead on Australian jobs and protection of local industries — traditionally an issue that Labor owned — has extended from 3 to 7 points. Labor’s tiny lead on education has gone from 2% to 1% despite the remorseless focus on education; it now trails the Coalition by 5 points on health, up from 3, the Coalition’s lead on asylum seekers has increased 5 points to 22 points. Despite interest rates returning to record lows, the Coalition’s lead on controlling interest rates has extended to 17 points. And the Coalition’s lead on political leadership has increased from 8 points in February to 19 points now.
On nearly all of these issues, Labor picked up ground, sometimes significant ground, on the Coalition throughout the second half of 2012. But all of that work has now been undone, or worse.
Essential also asked how voters voted in 2010 compared to their current voting intention; 12% of voters currently intending to vote for the Coalition voted for Labor in 2010, or 8% of all voters. Some 22% of voters currently intending to vote for the Greens voted for Labor in 2010, though 4% of those intending to vote Labor voted Green in 2010.
Actually it’s more likely to be due to the constant negative press…but that wouldn’t be your fault would it? No, of course not.
The only saving grace in an Abbott/Liberal Party victory come September 14, ’13, will be the thought of a journo with a bit of back bone asking George Brandis if his wife is gay; whether he clamps his nuts together in order to encourage the female vote with his cleavage, and when did he stop screwing the family dog?
Everyone keeps on prattling on about leadership. I defy anyone to go through the last couple of years negativity and sustained agressive if not vicious commentary and be able to be seen as a strong leader. Frankly I think JG has been quite remarkable given the circumstances and as Bradbury said this morning everyone makes mistakes and if everyone is obsessed on picking on every error then you get what you paid for.
I’ve seen this sort of situation in business and there are no winners.
It must be difficult to display leadership when you are being screamed at, vilified, abused, accused, condemned, lied about, physically commented on, undermined, white anted, sneered at etc and that’s from your own side. I won’t bother with the behaviour of the opposition-not enough characters to cover those characters! Venice- like you I can’t wait, not just for those questions but I also want a few rumours cleared up ( but of course it won’t be me talking it will be clarification of what has been swirling around in the press gallery about Abbott, Pyne, Joyce etc). *Venise.
Why do moron pollsters keep asking about economic management, the government does not manage our economy treasury and the reserve bank do.
The government only makes laws for the disbursement and raising of the taxes.