Newspoll: Voters back Scott Morrison’s Covid budget

Four in five voters support the PM’s tax cuts, handing the Coalition a budget bounce despite its price tag of a $1 trillion debt.

Queensland opposition leader Deb Frecklington, left, and Scott Morrison at the opening of the Rheinmetall Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence in Redbank on Sunday. Picture: Sarah Marshall

Four in five voters have backed the Morrison government’s income tax cuts, claiming they will be better off, with a majority of Australians believing the budget stimulus will drag the economy out of COVID-19 recession.

An exclusive post-budget Newspoll conducted for The Australian shows a bounce for the government despite coming with a price tag of a $1 trillion debt, with popular support for the Coalition lifting to its equal highest level since last year’s election.

The boost for Scott Morrison, whose personal approval ratings remain at record highs, came as the Prime Minister hit the campaign trail in Queensland to sell the federal budget in marginal seats ahead of this month’s state election.

In one of the best-received budgets in more than a decade, 42 per cent of voters believed it was good for the economy compared to 20 per cent who believed it bad.

Anthony Albanese appeared to be the only casualty with his disapproval ratings rising three points in the wake of a budget reply speech that accused the government of leaving people behind.

The Newspoll showed 90 per cent of Coalition voters supported the bringing forward of personal income tax cuts for low- and middle-income earners with 79 per cent of Labor voters also supporting the package, which delivered more than $2000 into the pockets of workers.

 

More voters — 26 per cent compared to 23 per cent — believed that they would be personally better off following the budget. This is only the third time since 2007 that a budget has ¬delivered such an outcome.

At the same time, 49 per cent of voters agreed that it would provide the stimulus needed to reboot the economy out of the COVID-19 recession, compared to 20 per cent who claimed it would be bad for the economy.

Josh Frydenberg told the ABC yesterday: “The Morrison government sees the government itself as a catalyst for the economic recovery, not the solution.

“The solution lies around every kitchen table in every Australian household.

“The solution lies in every factory floor, in every farm, in every shopfront. They are the people who have to take the decisions to employ more people. This is the philosophical divide between us and our political opponents.”

The second budget to be delivered under Scott Morrison as Prime Minister gave the Coalition a one-point rise in its primary vote to 44 per cent. It follows a similar rise three weeks ago, and has elevated the government back to its equal highest level of popular support since the last election and a one-point rise in the two-party-preferred lead for the Coalition to 52-48 per cent.

Mr Morrison’s high approval ratings remained unchanged at 65 per cent, which marks the longest period of sustained popularity for a prime minister since the first year of Kevin Rudd’s term in 2008.

 

But the Newspoll results show that the budget landed more favourably with men than women as Labor, unions and the crossbench gear up for a fight over fairness and a campaign against the $4bn wage subsidy for under-35s.

Among men, 45 per cent of men agreed overall that it was good for the economy compared to 39 per cent of women. However, 21 per cent of men compared to 19 per cent of women believed overall that it would be bad. Women were marginally less likely to agree they would be financially better off compared to men.

While the budget was well received across all demographic age groups, there was also broad support for the claim that the wage subsidies should have been offered universally rather than just younger people despite wage subsidies already in place for over-50s.

While 32 per cent of all voters agreed that the government was right to target younger people who could be permanently disadvantaged by the recession, 57 per cent believed it should have been ¬offered to the unemployed regardless of age.

The budget handed down last Tuesday, delayed from the traditional timetable of May due to the pandemic, unveiled $98bn in new stimulus spending centred around tax incentives for businesses, the bringing forward by two years stage two of the government’s 10-year $230 tax cut package, and wage subsidies to bring on new workers and bring down the unemployment rate.

 

The government’s economic credentials were also confirmed with significant support (54 per cent) for the view that the Coalition, 54 per cent, was more trusted to guide the economic recover than Labor (32 per cent).

The budget had no impact on Mr Morrison’s approval ratings, with 65 per cent claiming to be satisfied with his performance compared to 31 per cent claiming otherwise.

Mr Albanese, however, suffered a fall in his net approval ratings. While those satisfied remained steady at 39 per cent, his disapproval ratings rose from 40 per cent to 43 per cent.

Despite this, Mr Morrison fell two points to 57 per cent as the preferred prime minister, with Mr ¬Albanese gaining a point to 28 per cent on the previous poll.

Popular support for the Greens fell a point to 11 per cent, with One Nation remaining on 3 per cent and support for other minor parties static at 8 per cent.

The Newspoll was conducted between Thursday and Saturday, and surveyed 1527 voters across mainland capital cities and the regions. The margin of error in the results was 2.5 percentage points.