Monday’s The Australian Financial Review/Freshwater Strategy poll shows that voters are continuing to mark Labor down harshly on the economy amid falling living standards and no relief yet from higher interest rates. The poll coincides with Treasurer Jim Chalmers ramping up the government’s attack on the Coalition’s nuclear policy costings, accusing the opposition of betting on a “smaller economy and less growth” in the decades ahead.

Dr Chalmers’ claim the economy will suffer a $4 trillion hit is based on the Coalition’s assumption that the nation’s energy demands will be 40 per cent lower than forecast under Labor’s renewables-based transition plan, due to lower take up of electric vehicles and doubts about the future of hydrogen.