Federal Election 2022: Melbourne east shoppers favour Labor in marginal seats

Shoppers in the heartland of Liberal-held marginal seats in Melbourne’s east have delivered promising results for Labor as the federal election draws closer.

Labor’s Anthony Albanese has emerged as preferred prime minister in a poll of residents in marginally-held Liberal seats in Melbourne’s east. File picture.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has emerged as preferred prime minister in several of the government’s most marginally held Victorian seats.

A Leader survey around the Blackburn High School booth found 40 per cent of participants had Mr Albanese as the preferred prime minister.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison received 28 per cent of the vote, while the remaining 32 per cent didn’t back either man.

Other results from the poll of 50 people living in the marginal eastern suburbs seats revealed:

■ Labor is favoured as the major party most likely to help Australians with the cost of living, and trusted to defend Australia’s national security.

■ A majority of voters believe neither major party is trusted more to manage Australia’s economy, or were undecided.

Leader polled 50 shoppers who lived in suburbs including Blackburn, Blackburn North, Box Hill, Box Hill North, Forest Hill and Canterbury.

The suburbs all lie within seats held by the Liberals by no more than a seven per cent margin, including Chisholm (0.5 per cent), Deakin (4.7 per cent), Kooyong (6.4 per cent) and Menzies (7.0 per cent).

Blackburn North’s Christina McIntosh said Mr Albanese was “a compassionate and intelligent man” and Blackburn’s Betty, who didn’t give her surname, said she thought he “looks to me as more of a genuine leader”.

But Box Hill North’s Dan, who didn’t give his surname, sided with Mr Morrison, saying he had “done a pretty good job during Covid”.

Box Hill North couple Nick and Maria Williams didn’t want either in charge, and respectively called for ex-PMs Malcolm Turnbull and Julia Gillard to return.

Box Hill North trader Gina Menelaou said she would be backing Mr Morrison.

“I’ve got no problems with Scott Morrison, as a small business I think we’ve been looked after pretty fairly,” she said.

Daniel Daley, manager of Rubix Cafe at the Kerrimuir shopping strip in Box Hill North, said he was hoping Mr Albanese and Labor would prevail at next month’s poll.

“I don’t like ScoMo and I prefer Labor,” Mr Daley said. “He (Albanese) seems like a better guy, and he appears more keen to support workers and business owners.”

The cost of living and petrol prices were singled out by participants as the most important issues facing Australians at present, attracting 40 per cent of responses.

Climate change, Covid and support for pensioners and self-funded retirees were also hot issues.

Opinions were tighter on which party could be trusted to help people with the cost of living — Labor received 36 per cent of votes, the Liberals received 28 per cent, and the remaining 36 per cent voted for neither party, minor parties, or were undecided.

Both parties received an equal amount of votes (32 per cent) on who was trusted more to manage Australia’s economy, with the remaining 36 per cent selecting neither, or were undecided or didn’t mind either party.

Labor was singled out as the party most trusted to defend Australia’s national security with 32 per cent of votes, compared to the Liberals’ 20 per cent.

Despite the overall result, Box Hill North’s Julie Bird though the Liberals were “tougher on migration and letting dodgy people in”.

Nearly half of voters (48 per cent) said they couldn’t trust either party on national security, or were undecided or didn’t mind.