As Morrison readies to call the election, with speculation he will announce next weekend for May 18, he has also increased his lead over Shorten as better prime minister in Newspoll.
Weak economic data and sluggish wages have contributed to the Coalition’s poor showing in the latest Newspoll, which gives Labor a 54-46 lead on two-party preferred.
The worsening Coalition performance comes after last week’s sluggish economic figures and amid
more bickering on the conservative side of politics, including pot shots from Malcolm Turnbull.
The latest Fairfax-Ipsos and Essential polls give a strong lead to Labor, with some interesting – and variable - detail on the attributes voters see in the leaders of the two major parties.
The Newspolls have been consistently worse for the Coalition since the
leadership change – before that Labor had been cut back to a narrow 51-49% lead.
The latest polls are a mixed bag for the Morrison government: there were gains in primary and two-party preferred vote, but the polls still have Labor in an election-winning position.
The Morrison and Berejiklian governments might be of the same stripe but, with both facing elections in the first half of 2019, their interests rub up against each other uncomfortably.
Policymaking is no longer based solely on what a party stands for. Now, it also matters how a decision is going to play in the opinion polls – and that’s a problem for our political system.
The Coalition’s recent hit in the polls seems to be subsiding, while Kerryn Phelps may have made a damaging error by announcing she’ll preference the Liberals in the Wentworth byelection.
Another poor showing in the polls for the government, with analysis showing the Coalition most likely to lose support at the next election among the well-educated, the young and in Victoria.
The Coalition’s primary vote has plunged 4 points to 33%, and Labor’s vote has jumped from 35% to 41%, in The Australian’s poll, which comes as Morrison moved quickly to announce his ministerial team.