‘Sh*tshow’: Brutal focus group feedback for Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton
News.com.au has obtained focus group feedback from voters and they haven’t held back.
Federal Election
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Voters have described Anthony Albanese’s tumble off a stage as one of the most memorable parts of a lacklustre campaign describing his first term as “a sh*tshow.”
News.com.au has obtained focus group feedback from voters in independent-held seats in the last week.
In a brutal analysis of the campaign to date, voters participating in Liberal Party focus groups held in Teal seats this week have also complained that “rental inflation has gone berserk”.
But it’s the Prime Minister’s mishap on the campaign trail as he posed for photos at a campaign event in Lovedale, in NSW’s Hunter Valley that resonated after he briefly fell off the platform.
He quickly got to his feet with the help of those around him and grinned at the crowd, raising his hands to signal he was “sweet”.
Asked on ABC Newcastle if he was okay after he “fell from the stage” in Cessnock, Mr Albanese said: “No I stepped back one step. I didn’t fall off the stage.”
“It looked like you went down. I’m glad to hear you’re okay, though,” the radio host replied.
Mr Albanese insisted again he didn’t fall, prompting widespread ridicule.
“Just one leg went down, but I was sweet,” he said.
Voters in Liberal focus groups this week descended into laughter when remembering it.
“Yeah he did, but as far as I heard, he just denied it.’’ one voter said.
“Yeah he ‘didn’t fall’.’’ one voter added prompting spontaneous laughter. “That was the spin on it in the media, that he ‘didn’t fall’.”
“It’s a bit contradictory from the video!’’ another voter said.
Another voter thought that was “weird [him lying about it].”
Voters also complained the Prime Minister was “weak” echoing Peter Dutton’s favoured line.
“I see the ads, and I see what his policies are, and I just think well he hasn’t taken ownership of the sh*tshow that’s been the last few years, so I just don’t believe him,’’ a voter said.
“Energy prices have gone up, he promised they would go down, rental inflation has gone berserk, everything has become very expensive,’’ another voter said.
“It’s because of energy, immigration and inflation.”
“I just don’t think he’s doing a great job, like, you’re leading the country you should probably be doing a better job,’’ another voter said.
What focus groups said about Dutton
But the feedback on the Prime Minister was almost vanilla compared to the ALP focus groups on Peter Dutton.
Extreme, creepy, aggro, charmless, too “Trumpy”, looks better with glasses and a wanker.
This was the brutal verdict that voters have delivered on Peter Dutton in ALP focus groups that strategists are now weaponsing in the federal election campaign.
The emerging theme was that he is regarded by some voters as too extreme, too aligned with Donald Trump and “scary.”
But some voters went all the way to suggesting the former hard-man of the immigration portfolio should be running “a prison camp.”
“I just feel very negative, looks like Voldemort, seems like a standover man – I think he would just shake a tree and put walls up so nothing would really happen,’’ one voter in the Queensland seat of Leichhardt said.
“I don’t like the current Liberal leader Peter Dutton – he’s not behind his policies, it’s just talk – he says a lot of things just for an effect similar to Trump. He’s scary,’’ said another.
The comparison with the Harry Potter villain Voldemort, which the Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek made in 2022 before being forced to unreservedly apologise, is raised repeatedly in focus groups.
“[Dutton is] negative and unresponsive, he has no respect for the people, just in it for himself. He’s sycophantic to Donald Trump.”
“I really don’t like Dutton, he’s too much like Trump, too combative instead of offering solutions, just a negative person,’’ another voter said.
The feedback helps explain why Mr Dutton is now starting to draw a line in the sand with regard to the US President vowing to “fight him” over tariffs.
“When I see him speak – I just think evil: evil persona, Dr Evil, he’s inherently unlikeable. Dutton is an old tool. He’s the lesser of two evils,’’ another voter said.
The results fit with the latest Redbridge poll out on Saturday that finds Peter Dutton’s pledge to send public servants back to the office has helped drive women over to Anthony Albanese.
The results also found the Coalition’s pledge to cut fuel excise and the government’s promised income tax are almost tied for the public’s affection with Labor now holding an election-winning-lead with 52 per cent of the two-party-preferred vote, up one per cent from last month.
The turnaround in Labor’s support in Redbridge’s poll, which last November had the Coalition leading 51 per cent to 49 per cent, has been driven by a huge turnaround in perceptions of the government’s priorities.
The focus group helps explain some of the reasons. In Brisbane, a voter told the ALP focus group that Mr Dutton “has a bad history and bad track record.”
“I remember when he was the hardman in immigration, said weird racist things,’’ the voter said.
In the western Sydney seat of Parramatta, some voters claimed he seemed like “a machine.”
“This Dutton guy seems racist, makes me feel like I don’t belong in Australia. He’s a machine, he can’t connect,’’ a female voter said.
“Dutton is robotic, not personable, I dunno if I can trust him. Direct can be positive – but is he direct and truthful or direct and misleading.”
“I just think out of touch, racist, and want to be Trump. Didn’t realise he was so rich, he seems to not care at all about the working class.”
Dutton dismissed claims of racism as ‘disgraceful’
Mr Dutton has dismissed claims of racism in the past as disgraceful and way off the mark.
He was most recently forced to do so after independent MP Zali Steggall defended calling the opposition leader racist and accused him of fuelling division with his political attacks over visa-holders from Gaza.
“I’m not a racist, and I’m not going to be standing here as a punching bag for people like Zali Steggall,” Mr Dutton told Nine’s Today Show in response.
“I actually think, ironically, that by calling out people unnecessarily and unrealistically and unjustly as racists, they’re actually fuelling tensions.”
‘A wolf in sheep’s clothing’
In the electorate of Solomon, a voter complains Mr Dutton was too aggressive. “I want someone who can negotiate with Trump,’’ the voter said.
In the electorate of Blair, a voter complained that Mr Dutton was a charmless man.
“Seems like a wolf in sheep’s clothing,’’ the voter said. “Could be dangerous.”
In the new electorate of Gorton in Victoria, a female voter complained she wasn’t impressed by the Liberal leader.
“[Dutton] seems like a jerk, he gives me the heebie jeebies,’’ she said.
In the seat of Leichhardt, a female voter told an ALP focus group in March that she was concerned.
“We’ve been discussing him at home, he just seems like a horrible person,’’ she said.
“Very forceful and intense. He seems detached, uncompassionate, racist – has these really controversial views. He seems really untrustworthy and arrogant, I’d be worried about someone like that in the primary role for Australia. You wouldn’t know what he will do until he gets in.
Too Trumpy?
In the electorate of Corangamite, a voter complained that he seemed to be saying “A lot of things just for an effect similar to Trump.”
A male voter said Mr Dutton was “negative and unresponsive, he has no respect for the people just in it for himself.”
“He’s sycophantic to Donald Trump,’’ he said.
“He lacks humanity. Seems underhanded.”
A female voter said he “looks scary, like someone running a prison camp.”
“Dutton looks better with glasses, didn’t look human before,’’ one male voter in the electorate of Solomons told pollsters.
“My family are all Liberal voters but I really dislike Dutton, I don’t get a good feeling from him,’’ a female voter in Robertson said.
“He’s slimy, unrelatable – it’s just a female instinct, I don’t feel comfortable with Dutton. There’s no good vibes, he’s a snake.”
“He’s aggro it puts me off,’’ a female voter in the Northern Territory electorate of Solomon said.
“The way he speaks isn’t very genuine or interesting.” A male voter in the same seat described him as “very calculated and one dimensional.”
“I just find him creepy and can’t trust him – I don’t know what he would do or say,’’ a woman in the Victoria electorate of Holt said.
“I don’t value Dutton as a human being – something about him being Trumpy, or something about his face?,’’ a male voter in Lyons, Tasmania said.
“Dutton just seems fake – [like he’d be a] sheep, be a mini trump,’’ another voter said.
Originally published as ‘Sh*tshow’: Brutal focus group feedback for Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton
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