Deputy PM compares poor polling with Trump's election win

Nationals leader says only poll that matters is on election day.

BRING IT ON: National's candidate for Richmond Matthew Fraser and Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack who visited the Tweed on Monday morning. Picture: Rick Koenig

DEPUTY Prime Minister and Federal National Party leader Michael McCormack has likened the Coalition's poor polling figures to the 2016 US election, claiming if surveys meant anything "Donald Trump wouldn't be in the White House”.

Current polling figures for the Federal election have Labor at 52 per cent and the Nationals at 48 per cent, but Mr McCormack told the Tweed Daily News he wasn't concerned by the surveys which are "usually done in metropolitan areas”.

"If you looked at polling Donald Trump wouldn't be in the White House, the UK would still be in the European Union, Steven Marshall would not be the premier of South Australia, Will Hodgman would not be the premier of Tasmania, Gladys Berejiklian probably wouldn't be the premier of New South Wales,” he said.

"There's only one poll that matters, that's the poll on May 18, and the pre-poll before that, that's the poll we intend to win, polling is done quite often in metropolitan areas, quite often people are inconvenienced around dinner time, they get phoned up, they give a view, I don't think it's representative of all Australia, I really don't, I've never believed it is.

"Even when the polling has been in our favour, I've still said there's only one poll that matters, and that's when people put that slip of paper in the ballot box.”

Mr McCormack, who was in the Tweed to promote Nationals candidate for Richmond Matthew Fraser's election campaign, said it was "unfortunate” the Nationals lost seats in the NSW election but believed it was down to "localised factors”.

"It was unfortunate yes, you don't like to lose any seats, but the commentariat (media) was saying we were going to lose up to nine seats,” he said.

"We had a number of members transitioning from long serving members, up on the northern coastal areas of NSW we did very well. Yes we lost a couple of seats down south which were unfortunate, very, very unfortunate, but the drought also took its toll and the Shooters candidates who won those seats, who I don't think are on the same page when it comes to water, the fact is they won't be able to represent their seats and their people as well as the National Party.”

The Deputy PM said he believed the main issue for the Richmond electorate would be "Labor's retiree tax”, which he claimed would directly hit the hip pockets of Tweed's pensioners.

Mr Fraser said the electorate had already rejected Labor in the NSW election and hoped to see it happen again on a national level.

"The people of Tweed completely rejected the Elliot's including Justine Elliot's husband and the Labor Party, because they actively tried to divide this community on the brand new hospital issue,” he said.

"I'm certainly not taking anything for granted and I'm the underdog going into this election.”