Labor extend lead, record satisfaction for incoming PM Anthony Albanese – Newspoll

A new opinion poll is very welcome news for Labor and Anthony Albanese with record support – but the Opposition is in the doldrums.

It’s been a dream start for Anthony Albanese’s prime ministership, a new opinion poll has revealed.

A Newspoll for The Australian, released late on Sunday, has Mr Albanese with a record satisfaction rating of 61 per cent. No incoming PM has received such a strong satisfaction rating in a Newspoll since polling began in 1985.

Kevin Rudd got to 59 per cent after he entered The Lodge with Scott Morrison on 51 per cent in May 2019, after that election.

The poll high for Mr Albanese comes despite rising cost of living pressures. That suggests that – at least for now – he’s not being blamed for soaring prices.

Anthony Albanese has record satisfaction ratings for an incoming prime minister. Picture: David Caird

The polling was conducted between July 27-30 among just over 1500 voters.

Mr Albanese’s popularity is in contrast to Opposition Leader Peter Dutton. Only 25 per cent thought Mr Dutton would make a good prime minister compared to 59 per cent for Mr Albanese.

The leaders’ net satisfaction rating also had Mr Albanese with a strong lead. The net satisfaction score subtracts the percentage of those who are dissatisfied with a leader’s performance from the percentage of those who are satisfied.

With 61 per cent of people satisfied with Mr Albanese’s first few months in The Lodge, and 26 per cent dissatisfied that leaves him with a net satisfaction score of plus 35 per cent.

The last time Scott Morrison was near those levels of net satisfaction was in February 2021. The former PM did however reach a higher 40 per cent net satisfaction rating in early 2020, in the midst of the pandemic.

Mr Dutton’s net satisfaction rating is at minus 4 per cent, meaning more people are dissatisfied with his performance than satisfied. Although both Scott Morrison, as PM, and Mr Albanese, as opposition leader, have recorded lower scores than that.

Net satisfaction ratings for Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton (left) are far below those of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

Labor vote climbs

Labor has also seen its primary vote climb five points since the election result to 37 per cent. But the Coalition is going backward with its primary vote down to 33 per cent from its electoral result of 35.7 per cent, according to the research for The Australian.

Labor’s two party preferred vote is also up from a split of 52.1 per cent to it and 47.9 per cent for the Coalition on election day in May, to 56 to 44 per cent now, according to Newspoll.

The Greens have essentially held steady with a primary vote of 12 per cent.

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party has gone up from 5 per cent of the vote in May to 6 per cent now. However Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party has seen its support cut in half, from 4.1 per cent to 2 per cent.

The independents, many of whom are the so called “teals,” have held firm with 10 per cent of the vote. Together the independent MPs make up the fourth biggest bloc in parliament after Labor, the Coalition and the Greens.

Anthony Albanese with the Yolngu People during the Garma Festival 2022 at Gulkula on July 29, 2022 in East Arnhem. (Photo by Tamati Smith/Getty Images)

Mr Albanese will be hoping he can steer some of the goodwill towards him personally into success on the policy front.

On the weekend, he revealed the probable wording of a question to be put in a historic referendum that would change the constitution to recognise an Indigenous Voice to parliament.

“I would like us to present the Australian people with the clearest possible referendum question,” the Prime Minister told the packed crowd at the Northern Territory’s Garma Festival.

“We should consider asking our fellow Australians something as simple and clear as this: ‘Do you support an alteration to the Constitution that establishes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice?’”

Mr Albanese said his government would seek support for the question in time to have a referendum in this term of parliament.

He described the proposal as a “straightforward proposition” being “from the heart”.

Originally published as Labor extend lead, record satisfaction for incoming PM Anthony Albanese – Newspoll