LNP closing the gap on Labor’s lead in the polls, Annastacia Palaszczuk viewed less favourably

An exclusive poll has revealed how the integrity scandal plaguing the Queensland Government has taken the shine off Annastacia Palaszczuk’s popularity – but it may not lose them the election. SEE THE RESULTS

The state government’s integrity scandal has taken the shine off Annastacia Palaszczuk’s personal popularity, with a third of voters saying they view the Premier less favourably now due to dramas plaguing her government.

And the LNP has closed the gap on Labor’s lead in the polls, pulling support from minor parties to poll better now than its disappointing 2020 election result.

A new YouGov Poll of more than 1000 people, conducted exclusively for The Courier-Mail, has revealed Ms Palaszczuk’s personal popularity has taken a hit as integrity questions swirl around her third-term administration.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has taken a hit to her personal popularity ratings following the integrity saga. Picture: Liam Kidston

Thirty-three per cent of voters said integrity issues – including claims of political interference in the offices of independent integrity heads revealed by The Courier-Mail – had caused them to view the Premier less favourably.

That number rose to two in five voters in southeast Queensland seats.

Just one in 10 said the revelations had caused them to view Ms Palaszczuk in a better light and 46 per cent said it hadn’t changed their view.

Only 11 per cent said they hadn’t heard of the integrity issues or didn’t know how they felt about them.

Half of voters were still satisfied with Ms Palaszczuk’s personal performance and only 36 per cent were dissatisfied.

But it’s a drop from the sky-high levels in early October 2020, just weeks ahead of the election, when 57 per cent of people were satisfied with how she was leading Queensland and only 27 per cent weren’t.

Despite the personal hit, Labor’s primary vote has barely moved from its winning 39.6 per cent result at the 2020 election, holding firm at 39 per cent.

But the LNP’s fortunes have risen under new leader David Crisafulli by two percentage points since the October 2020 election to pull 38 per cent of the primary vote.

The LNP has begun to close the gap in Labor’s lead with new leader David Crisafulli raising the primary vote up by two percentage points. Picture: Jerad Williams

It’s been at the expense of smaller parties, particularly Katter’s Australia Party, who recorded just one per cent of the primary vote.

The Green’s vote and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation’s has edged up slightly to 10 per cent and 8 per cent respectively.

Labor now leads the two party preferred vote at 52 per cent to the LNP’s 48 per cent.

Labor polled 53.2 per cent to win in 2020, compared with the LNP’s 46.8 per cent.

Following Ms Palaszczuk’s campaign pledge to lead an open and accountable government before her shock, victorious 2015 election campaign against Campbell Newman, only 37 per cent of voters think she’d done an “excellent” or “good” job delivering on that front, with just as many rating her performance “weak” or “poor”.

About a quarter believed she had done an “average” job.

Voters were surveyed between Friday, February 18 – the day Ms Palaszczuk announced former QUT vice-chancellor Peter Coaldrake would conduct a review of her government’s integrity and culture – and Wednesday, February 22.

However, news of the review has not stopped integrity issues biting this parliament sitting week following Integrity Commissioner Dr Nikola Stepanov issuing a statement on Monday saying she didn’t believe the scope or powers of the Coaldrake review would be enough to get to the nub of deep-seated issues.

Dr Stepanov has been central to damaging revelations to dog her government, in particular that her office has been the subject of interference, including when a laptop at the centre an ongoing legal proceedings was taken from her office and wiped by the Public Service Commission, which had denied her requests to conduct a forensic examination on it.

She has called for a more powerful Commission of Inquiry, with greater legal protections for whistleblowers than what the Coaldrake review offers.

Queenslanders were most positive around the government's handling of the Covid pandemic, with 26 per cent marking its performance as “excellent”, and 32 per cent rating it “good”.

Another 23 per cent said it had done an average job, while less than one in five were unimpressed with the government‘s “weak” or ”poor” handling of the health emergency.

They were slightly more subdued in their assessment of the Palaszczuk Government’s management of the state economy, with one in 10 believing their performance was “excellent”, one third saying it had been “good” and three in 10 rating it “average”.

Twenty-eight said the government had done a “poor” or “weak” job.