Federal election 2016: Lambie winning voters over to deliver return

Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie has solidified her position since dumping Clive Palmer.

Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie claims credit for major party election pledges for Tasmania. Picture: Chris Kidd.

Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie has solidified her position since dumping Clive Palmer to become an independent, latest polling suggests.

A ReachTEL poll published in The Sunday Tasmanian yesterday suggests 39.9 per cent of Tasmanians are more likely to vote for Senator Lambie than they were in 2013, six percentage points more than the 33 per cent who said they were less likely to do so.

The Palmer United Party, with Senator Lambie as a then-relatively unknown lead candidate in Tasmania, secured 6.5 per cent of the Senate vote in 2013, just shy of the 7.7 per cent needed at this double-dissolution election for her to be re-elected.

Senator Lambie yesterday claimed credit for recent major party election pledges for the state. “Now there’s serious independent political competition, both major parties have been finally forced to promise serious money for vital Tasmanian infrastructure,” she said.

ReachTEL’s latest poll, of 2746 residents across all electorates, suggests the former military policewoman should achieve the quota and may even have a chance of bringing her No. 2 running mate, Devonport Mayor Steve Martin, with her. The poll in The Sunday Tasmanian, published by News Corporation, the publisher of The Australian, was less positive for federal Tourism Minister Richard Colbeck, dumped to No. 5 on the Liberal Party’s Senate ticket.

Despite Senator Colbeck last week running newspaper advertisements urging Tasmanians to vote for him below the line in the Senate, to circumvent the party’s ticket, only 23.2 per cent of voters polled said they were more likely to vote for him this time. About 32 per cent were less likely to do so.

Labor’s demoted senator Lisa Singh, placed at the party’s unlikely No 6 spot, has also been trying to secure below-the-line votes. The poll shows 32.1 per cent of voters are more likely to vote for her this time; 29.7 per cent are less likely to do so.