Scott Morrison will continue to tip out large dollops of money when he addresses the National Press Club on Tuesday, with his theme “building national resilience”.
Latest polling shows a dramatic slump in voters’ views of the Morrison government, and with an election likely in May, the question now is whether that will change in the coming months.
Labor has opened a 56-44% two-party lead and Scott Morrison’s net satisfaction rating has plunged 11 points in Newspoll, after a disastrous summer in which Omicron has ripped through most of the country and deaths have spiked.
Newspoll continues to show Labor ahead of the Coalition on a two-party preferred basis, but other polls, and the end of lockdowns on the east coast, may paint a different picture in the coming weeks.
Voters are punishing the Coalition, and particularly Prime Minister Scott Morrison, for the vaccine debacle, but they may yet be saved by a strong economy.
The government has failed to get any electoral “bounce” from last week’s budget, despite it being widely seen as good for the economy, according to Newspoll.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s strong ratings in the Newspoll and Essential poll suggest the slow vaccine rollout and anger among women might not be hurting the government yet.
One analyst describes Labor’s lead in WA as “scarcely possible”, while new focus on sexual assault at Parliament House has not had an impact on the latest federal Newspoll.