Newspoll: Voters rate Anthony Albanese as weakest leader in decades
Anthony Albanese is the weakest prime minister in decades, according to the latest Newspoll, despite a two-party contest that has the Coalition and Labor back to a neck-and-neck race.
Voters consider Anthony Albanese the weakest prime minister in decades, with Peter Dutton widening his lead as the stronger and more decisive leader, despite a two-party contest that has the Coalition and Labor back to a neck-and-neck race to the election.
An exclusive Newspoll conducted for The Australian shows Mr Albanese falling further behind the Opposition Leader on key character traits considered crucial to the leadership contest.
His rating as a strong and decisive leader has fallen five points to 44 per cent compared to Mr Dutton on an unchanged 60 per cent.
This is the lowest score for a prime minister on this critical measure since Newspoll first began the series in 2008 after the election of Kevin Rudd.
Mr Dutton’s is the highest score for an opposition leader since Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull more than a decade ago.
The Newspoll findings come as Mr Albanese faces pressure from Jewish leaders and the Coalition to take greater action against rising anti-Semitism following Friday morning’s arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue.
The bulk of surveys conducted in the latest poll were completed before news of the attack.
Mr Albanese has also become increasingly out of touch with voters, losing an important advantage over the Liberal leader on this as cost of living, the stalling economy and social unrest dominate the political landscape.
Mr Dutton maintained his lead as the more experienced leader and continued to score higher than Mr Albanese as having a vision for the nation and understanding the issues of most concern to voters.
Overall, Mr Albanese fell in eight of the nine categories.
He is less likeable, less trusted, less in touch with voters and weaker and less decisive than he was six months ago.
Mr Albanese’s declining scores on these measures, however, were counterbalanced with voters continuing to regard him as more likeable and caring than Mr Dutton.
Mr Albanese was also still considered less arrogant than the Liberal leader but suffered a fall in trust with his lead over his rival on this measure narrowing to five points.
Despite the erosion of voter opinion over a six-month period, Mr Albanese increased his advantage over Mr Dutton as the preferred prime minister in the latest Newspoll.
The two-party contest between Labor and the Coalition in the latest Newspoll also tightened to 50/50 as the parliament rose for the year before a long summer break ahead of the election.
This marked a slight shift back toward Labor from the 51/49 lead the Coalition had enjoyed since early October.
The Coalition’s primary vote fell a point to 39 per cent while Labor’s primary vote of 33 per cent remained unchanged.
The Greens remained on 11 per cent, which is almost two points down on the last election result.
The dip in support for the Coalition corresponded with a rise in support for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, with the right wing minor party lifting two points to 7 per cent.
Support for other minor parties and independents, including the teal independents, fell a point to 10 per cent.
This is 4.5 points down on the May 2022 election result in which seven left-leaning independents were elected to the lower house.
The Newspoll came as Mr Albanese and Mr Dutton blitzed battleground seats in Perth and Tasmania respectively.
Mr Albanese unveiled the opening of a major train line in Perth’s north on Sunday, where the booming outer suburbs helped to fuel the red wave that had Labor pick up five seats and secure majority government in 2022.
Mr Dutton, in the crucial swing seat of Lyons on Sunday, attempted to paint his Labor counterpart as weak in the face of green interests, after weeks of internal government strife over Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s delay of a review into salmon fishing.
The Newspoll survey covered a period during which bad economic news drove the political debate, including last week’s national accounts figures showing the economy would have been in recession if not for record levels of government spending.
The survey period also included the final week of parliament for the year, which Mr Albanese claimed as a rare political victory for the government following the passage of 40 government bills.
The approval ratings for both leaders remained largely unchanged, with Mr Albanese on a net negative approval rating of minus 14 and Mr Dutton on a net negative rating of minus 12.
Satisfaction with Mr Albanese’s performance as Prime Minister remained stable at 40 per cent, while dissatisfaction dropped a point to 54 per cent.
Mr Dutton’s satisfaction rating fell a point to 39 per cent but against no movement on the dissatisfaction score of 51 per cent.
The margin between the two leaders on the measure of who would make a better prime minister improved slightly for Mr Albanese.
While his score of 45 per cent was unchanged, Mr Dutton’s fell three points to 38 per cent, with 17 per cent uncommitted.
On the measure of who was regarded as the most experienced leader, Mr Dutton retained a lead of two points over Mr Albanese – 70/68.
This marked a two-point improvement for Mr Albanese – his only gain across all nine attributes measured.
The last time this series was conducted was in June this year.
The latest Newspoll was conducted between December 2 and December 6, and surveyed 1258 respondents throughout the country.
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