Rita Panahi: Polls not dire for PM as long as Albo is around

Anthony Albanese is Scott Morrison’s greatest asset — who knows what the polls would be showing if the PM was facing a competent opposition leader.

As long as Anthony Albanese is around, Scott Morrison can breathe a sigh of relief. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

So, the Coalition improved its primary vote and Scott Morrison has a 20 point advantage as preferred prime minister after a fortnight of relentlessly poor coverage from a nakedly partisan media obsessed with one issue.

Voters understand that twisting real concerns about workplace harassment and violence against women into a partisan issue is not going to advance the cause of women nor is hysteria and hyperbole.

The latest Newspoll data shows that most voters can see through the activist media’s determination to tie societal ills and toxic behaviour in Parliament House to just one side of the political divide.

Coalition MPs would be breathing a sigh of relief but they shouldn’t get too comfortable for there’s no denying the prime minister has botched his response to this issue and though he leads opposition leader Anthony Albanese 52 per cent to 32 per cent as preferred PM, his personal approval rating has dropped to its lowest point for a year.

Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese. Picture: Getty Images

The two-party preferred vote remains at 52-48 per cent in Labor’s favour, however Labor’s primary vote dropped to 38 per cent while the Coalition’s vote increased to 40 per cent.

As long as Albanese is opposition leader then Scott Morrison will be feeling secure in his job.

Albo is Morrison’s greatest political asset.

Who knows what the polls would be showing if the PM was facing a competent opposition leader who doesn’t get his political cues exclusively from Twitter.

Labor’s latest policy idea may be opportunistic but it is better than many of their previous efforts.

Albanese is essentially looking at rebranding Tony Abbott’s paid parental leave policy and giving parents 26 weeks of leave at their normal salary including superannuation.

It is unclear whether both the mother and father would qualify for this largesse but at the very least the primary caregiver would be able to stay home with their child for six months on full salary.

When the Abbott government proposed this policy, the most practical pro-women policy imaginable, the modern feminists from the media, academia and commentariat were quick to find fault.

Anthony Albanese. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

Not because it was a bad policy or failed to be sufficiently pro-women but because Abbott had proposed it.

Watch that same mob now champion Albo’s policy proposal.

Mothers should receive their full salary when on maternity leave but businesses cannot afford to give six months leave to both parents, only the primary caregiver should qualify.

We have just emerged from the worst recession since the Great Depression and there’s more pain to come with both state and federal governments accumulating unprecedented levels of debt.

Jobs, energy prices and reopening the country and economy are top of mind for most voters, not the Canberra press gallery’s obsession with workplace harassment and conduct.

While the nation’s media are preoccupied with the women’s march, the culture of Parliament House and introducing female quotas for the Liberal party, people in NSW are battling a once in a 50 year flood.

Elsewhere in the country we have entire sectors of the economy on their knees and a major city being locked down again over a handful of COVID-19 cases.

State premiers from Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia continue to shut their borders and impose draconian restrictions rather than come up with a proportional, targeted response to the COVID-19 threat in Australia.

And, we have a vaccine rollout that started late and is proceeding at a glacial pace.

These are the issues that matter to the electorate and will ultimately determine the next election.

@ritapanahi

[e-mail]