Voice focus stirs blue collar revolt against Anthony Albanese and the Labor Party

Anthony Albanese and the Labor Party have suffered a huge swing against them with a huge collapse in support from its traditional working-class base.

Blue-collar Australia is turning its back on the Albanese government, with support for the Coalition surging since the Voice referendum among tradies and Australians with vocational and TAFE educations.

In results that suggest rejection of the Voice might damage Labor’s vote at the next election, the latest RedBridge poll has found the party’s primary vote has dropped 4 per cent since August, led by a collapse in its support among working-class Australians.

The poll also found half of the country’s voters don’t think the government’s priorities are right, although the same percentage don’t think the Coalition under Peter Dutton is ready to return to government.

In August, RedBridge had Labor’s primary vote leading the Coalition’s 39 per cent to 28 per cent among voters with Year 12 or equivalent.

Among voters with a TAFE, trade or vocational education Labor led the Coalition 36 per cent to 29 per cent on primaries. But in the poll taken last week, RedBridge found support for the major parties has flipped, with the Coalition now leading Labor on primaries among both these demographic groups.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is losing support with blue collar workers.

Among voters with a Year 12 or equivalent education, the Coalition now leads Labor 37 per cent to 28 per cent on primaries. With TAFE, trade or vocationally educated voters it leads 35 per cent to 33 per cent.

In contrast, Labor’s primary vote has improved slightly among Australians with university degrees – up from 40 per cent to 41 per cent since the referendum, while the Coalition’s share of the tertiary-educated has fallen from 34 per cent to 31 per cent.

Worryingly for the government, the referendum appears to have triggered a collapse in Labor’s primary vote among people aged 35 to 49.

In October, Labor’s primary vote among this age group was 41 per cent to the Coalition’s 26 per cent, but last week the two were neck-and-neck with 32 per cent apiece.

Voters don’t believe Peter Dutton and the Coalition are ready to govern.- Photo Steve Pohlner

On a two-party preferred basis, the government leads the opposition by 53.5 per cent to 46.5 per cent.

But this is down from the 55.6 per cent to 44.4 per cent lead Labor held in August.

RedBridge director Tony Barry said: “The honeymoon is over for Anthony Albanese and he’s now sleeping on the couch.”

Referring to the poll’s findings that only 30 per cent of voters think the Coalition under Peter Dutton is ready for government compared to 50 per cent who think it is unready, Mr Barry said: “The only thing currently holding the dam wall back is that a majority of voters don’t believe the Coalition are ready for government.”

The online panel poll of 1205 people was conducted between October 25 and November 2.