Newspoll: One Nation’s slide gives Labor and Coalition a boost

The latest Newspoll has thrown up a few surprises and could give us a clear pointer as to just how the election result will play out.

According to the latest Newspoll, support for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party has fallen, giving Scott Morrison his best primary vote for the Coalition since the last election.

But Hanson’s loss of support has also strengthened Labor’s lead.

According to The Australian’s first Newspoll conducted since the May 18 election was called, both major parties are neck to neck. With preferences from the Greens, Labor is sitting at a two-party preferred vote of 52 per cent to 48 per cent — a 2.4 swing against the Coalition based on the last election. This represents a potential loss of 10 seats for Scott Morrison.

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Senator Pauline Hanson’s One Nation has fallen in popularity giving a boost to the Coalition and Labor in the latest Newspoll. Picture: Liam Kidston

Heading into the first week of the campaign, the Prime Minister’s lead over Bill Shorten remains unchanged at 11 points.

Mr Morrison will announce more infrastructure projects in Victoria tomorrow, a strategic move for the Coalition with population being a critical election issue.

The Opposition Leader will stay in Melbourne where he will concentrate on campaigning in key suburbs and continue to focus on his health care initiatives.

With less than five weeks to go until the poll, the Coalition has capitalised on the two-point spike in its primary vote, adding another point in the latest Newspoll, which was conducted in the day the election was called.

One Nation suffered a 4 per cent crash in the wake of the James Ashby $20 million guns-for-funds scandal, with nationwide support dropping to its lowest since 2016.

In good news for Scott Morrison, the Coalition has regained the ground it lost since Malcolm Turnbull was ousted.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is in his strongest position since September 2016. Picture: Adam Taylor/AFP

The Coalition is now in its best position since September 2016.

Labor’s two-point jump puts it in a solid election position despite still being down on last year’s high of 41 per cent.

The result of the One Nation slide is to deliver a stronger position to each of the main parties.

While One Nation is mostly popular in Queensland, last year it managed to take four Senate positions and 1.3 per cent of the national primary vote in the last election.

The fall in support for the right-wing nationalist party comes after Scott Morrison vowed to put One Nation below Labor on Liberal how-to-vote cards.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten was also given a boost by the drop in popularity with One nation. Picture: Kym Smith

Further indicating the strengthening of the preferred two parties is Newspoll’s indication that total votes for independents and minor parties has dropped to 22 per cent.

That’s well down on the peak of 29 per cent of 2017’s Newspoll.

But the Greens have remained unchanged at 9 per cent, which is a 1.2 per cent point swing on the last election result.

It comes as the approval ratings for both leaders of the major parties remained virtually unchanged.

— With The Australian

Originally published as Newspoll: One Nation’s slide gives Labor and Coalition a boost