Sunday Mail opinion poll: YouGov Galaxy poll of South Australian state politics a year since March election

It has been a year since Steven Marshall and the SA Liberals won power in the 2018 State Election. An exclusive Sunday Mail poll reveals how South Australians think the government has performed, and who they back as their preferred premier.

• February, 2018: Marshall lags in opinion polls as preferred Premier
• October, 2017: Nick Xenophon SA’s preferred leader

Premier Steven Marshall’s Liberals are defying the party’s national support slump to extend a political honeymoon on their first anniversary of winning power, a Sunday Mail opinion poll shows.

In the first major poll since last year’s March 17 election, the Liberal state government leads the Labor opposition 52-48 on two-party preferred support — effectively mirroring the election result.

With the Nick Xenophon juggernaut evaporated, backing for his former party, SA Best, has eroded and reverted to the major parties, increasing their primary support to 42 per cent (Liberals) and 37 per cent (Labor).

Mr Marshall is preferred as premier by almost half of the 844 respondents to the statewide YouGov Galaxy poll, leading his Labor rival, Peter Malinauskas, by 46 per cent to 26 per cent.

However, 28 per cent remain uncommitted.

The South Australian Liberal branch — infamous for infighting and poor electoral support for much of the previous decade — has become a stronghold for a party that has trailed repeatedly in federal opinion polls and been trounced at federal by-elections and a Victorian state election last year.

Commenting on his first year as premier since ending Labor’s 16-year reign, Mr Marshall nominated halving the Emergency Services Levy, payroll tax cuts, an apprenticeship and traineeship program and the announcement the Australian space agency would be based in Adelaide as his greatest achievements.

Life is good for SA Premier Steven Marshall. Picture: David Mariuz/AAP

But the Opposition said Mr Marshall had failed to keep his promise of creating more jobs.

The Sunday Mail poll, taken between March 12-14, shows a return to the traditional two-party system after Mr Xenophon consistently led opinion polls as preferred premier ahead of last year’s election, at which SA Best ultimately failed to win a lower house seat.

SA Best’s primary support has slumped from 14.1 per cent at last year’s election to seven per cent in the Sunday Mail poll, while the Liberals’ primary support has increased from 38 per cent to 42 per cent and Labor’s from 32.8 per cent to 37 per cent.

The Greens (seven per cent) and Australian Conservatives (three per cent) recorded almost identical primary support levels to the election.

Mr Marshall’s dominant position as preferred premier is the first time he has held a commanding lead over his Labor rival in a YouGov Galaxy Poll since becoming Liberal leader in February, 2013.

His best effort as preferred state leader was against former Labor premier Jay Weatherill — a narrow 39-36 per cent lead on the eve of the 2014 election, which the Liberals lost despite wining a 53-47 per cent share of the statewide two-party preferred vote.

Mr Marshall on Friday bemoaned Labor blocking key election commitments but said his Government was “not deterred’.

“There’s so much to celebrate in the first year but we’ve only just begun, there’s plenty more delivery to do for the people of South Australia,” he said.

“We’re getting on with growing the size of the economy, we’re getting on with growing our population and we’re getting on with creating more jobs in this state and I think that it’s already feeling more confident than it was a year ago.”

A spokesman for Mr Malinauskas said: “Before the election, Steven Marshall didn’t say anything about his plans for cuts, closures and privatisations.

“Since the election, he’s cut bus routes, closed hospital beds, shut down TAFEs and he’s closing Service SA centres.

“Steven Marshall promised ‘more jobs’ but he’s delivered zero jobs growth and unemployment has increased from 5.6 per cent to 6.3 per cent.”