Annastacia Palaszczuk remains preferred premier but support slumps to pre-pandemic levels

One in every two Queenslanders think Annastacia Palaszczuk enjoys the ‘high life’ that comes with being premier, according to exclusive polling that reveals voter sentiment on who would best lead the state.

One in every two Queenslanders think Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk enjoys the “high life” that comes with her job, according to a new poll that reveals her personal standing has taken a hit in the past four months.

But just as many voters also think the Premier still works hard – and a clear majority believe she cares about Queensland, according to an exclusive new poll.

The YouGov poll commissioned exclusively by The Courier-Mail reveals that while Ms Palaszczuk is still clearly preferred as premier over Opposition Leader David Crisafulli, the 41-28 split on that question is the tightest since before the pandemic.

Polling on the question of preferred premier is the tightest since before the pandemic. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

In fact, on most measures polled by YouGov last week, support for Ms Palaszczuk has now slumped to pre-pandemic levels – and Mr Crisafulli’s net satisfaction result is, at plus-eight, the best for an Opposition Leader since Lawrence Springborg almost seven years ago.

Overall, 31 per cent of the more than 1000 respondents said they were satisfied with the way Mr Crisafulli was doing his job (and 23 per cent not) – compared to 45 per cent for the Premier (and 39 per cent not).

However, almost half of voters still do not have an opinion on the Opposition Leader.

Ms Palaszczuk’s rating on that question has – before this poll – not been lower than 49 per cent since late January 2020, when Covid was only just starting to emerge as a threat.

10AM TUESDAY: The Courier-Mail will publish exclusive polling that will reveal how the Palaszczuk government is performing across the three areas deemed the most important issues facing our state – cost of living, housing affordability and hospitals/ambulance ramping.

Her net satisfaction rating as Premier is now just plus-six, a far cry from the plus-30 score she recorded in the last poll before the 2020 state election – and puts her back where she was through much of 2018 and 2019.

The poll also revealed that two-party preferred support for the two major parties in Queensland is now locked at 50-50 after a recent slump in Labor’s vote, indicating a hung parliament would be the result if a state election was held today.

More than half of voters polled do not have an opinion on Opposition leader David Crisafulli. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Asked directly how their opinion of the Premier had changed since the election, 34 per cent of respondents said they were less favourable – but 12 per cent said they were actually more positive than at that time, and a significant 46 per cent had not changed their view.

Tellingly, almost one in five Labor voters said they were less favourable to the Premier now than at the election.

When asked to say whether a series of statements applied to the Premier, respondents were most taken by the fact she “cares about Queensland” (60 per cent agreed) and “works hard” (52 per cent support).

But exactly half also said she “enjoys the high life” and one in three (35 per cent) said she was “easily influenced”.

The most significant disparity between Brisbane and the regions came on the question of if the Premier cares about Queensland, with just one in five voters in the city saying she did not – compared with 31 per cent of those polled who live outside the southeast.

On the eve of the 2020 election, Ms Palaszczuk led then opposition leader Deb Frecklington 48-22 as preferred premier.

In 2017 she led Tim Nicholls 43-29, and in 2015 the incumbent premier Campbell Newman was ahead 45-40 as voters headed to the polls.

Today it is 41-28 in Ms Palaszczuk’s favour.