Annastacia Palaszczuk declares herself underdog as David Crisafulli’s popularity grows
For the first time LNP leader David Crisafulli leads Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk as preferred premier.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has declared herself the underdog in next year’s state election as new polling reveals she is no longer the state’s preferred premier.
The YouGov results, published in The Courier-Mail, show the Liberal National Party leads Labor on a statewide two-party-preferred basis of 52-48 per cent.
Labor won government in 2020 with a two-party-preferred result of 53.2 per cent to the LNP’s 46.8 per cent.
For the first time, LNP leader David Crisafulli leads Ms Palaszczuk as preferred premier by 37 per cent to 35 per cent, with 28 per cent uncommitted.
Ms Palaszczuk’s satisfaction rating has plunged from a high of 57 per cent in September 2020 to 32 per cent this month. During the same period, her dissatisfaction rate grew from 27 per cent to 52 per cent.
The results will ring alarm bells within Labor ranks, with Ms Palaszczuk’s personal popularity historically one of the party’s strongest assets.
The poll of 1013 Queensland voters took place between October 4 and October 10, the week before the voice referendum.
It suggests about a dozen Labor seats could be at risk if replicated at the next election, but may not be enough for the LNP to clinch the 13 seats it needs to secure a majority government.
Asked if they would be more or less likely to vote for Labor if Ms Palaszczuk was replaced as leader, 61 per cent of people polled said it would not make a difference.
Of those surveyed, 52 per cent said they did not know, or had no opinion, on who would make the best substitute for Ms Palaszczuk if she was no longer leader.
Health Minister Shannon Fentiman and Treasurer Cameron Dick were tied on 8 per cent, while 10 per cent of respondents chose Deputy Premier Steven Miles. Another 22 per cent of people said “someone else”.
In an interview with The Australian on Wednesday, ahead of the poll, Ms Palaszczuk said Labor was “definitely the underdog when it comes to the next election”.
“I’m under no illusions about that,” she said.
“We’ve been in battles before, we’ve been in worse situations before and we’ve come through it because we’re a united team, and we’re focused on the people of this state.”
Chief government whip Don Brown said Labor “obviously took a hit” after rumblings about Ms Palaszczuk’s future as leader.
“It doesn’t help,” he said.
“I think we’ve gotten that out of the way, we are focused, she is our leader and she is taking us to the election.
“She has been in this position before and we have won.”
Child Safety Minister Craig Crawford said Ms Palaszczuk was “good leader” but was not the only person capable of steering Labor to a fourth consecutive election win.
“I don’t think she is the only person. I think we are fortunate to have many, many competent people that could provide that leadership,” he said.
“But we are rock solid behind her, she has been fantastic for us, she’s been great for Queensland and I don’t see any reason why we would change that.”
Mr Crawford said the sliding poll result may be linked to Queensland’s strong No vote at the voice referendum.
“I think any sort of political polling around the same time of a referendum will probably be a bit skewed. Let’s see what it looks like over the next three to six months.”
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