‘People’s choice’ no more as Anthony Albanese’s polls plunge

Anthony Albanese is rating worse than Simon Crean did at the same time in his leadership.

 

There was a time when Anthony Albanese used to revel in the title of the “people’s choice” — when he won more rank-and-file Labor votes than Bill Shorten — but still failed to win the job as opposition leader and had to wait six years to get to the top.

Now, as a Labor leader six months after a third consecutive ALP election loss, Albanese is facing further pain — he’s rating worse than Simon Crean did at the same time in his leadership.

Crean, who took over from Kim Beazley to face John Howard after the 2001 election, also Labor’s third straight loss, had a higher voter satisfaction than Albanese does six months after the Labor loss and a change of leadership.

In May 2002, Crean’s voter satisfaction was 41 per cent and his dissatisfaction was 31 per cent — a positive satisfaction rating of 10 percentage points.

In the latest Newspoll survey, Albanese’s voter satisfaction was 38 per cent and his dissatisfaction rating was 45 per cent — a satisfaction rating of minus seven points.

On the question of who would make the better prime minister, Albanese is better placed than Crean was but still behind Scott Morrison. In 2002, as the war against terror in Afghanistan was conducted and the Howard government benefited from tough border protection laws, Crean trailed the prime minister by a whopping 29 percentage points and had only 24 per cent support. Last weekend, Albanese had 35 per cent support and trailed Morrison by only seven points.

The most damning figure from the comparison between Crean and Albanese six months into their leadership was that Labor’s primary vote under Crean was 40 per cent and it is just 33 per cent under Albanese’s leadership.

During Crean’s leadership, Labor’s primary vote was only at 33 per cent once — straight after the 2001 election defeat — and after six months had actually risen from the election primary vote level of 37.8 per cent to 40 per cent.

The primary vote under Crean ­between 2001 and December 2003 fluctuated but remained in the high 30s until he was removed ­before he could lead the ALP to an election.

While it may be bad news for Albanese to be tracking personally worse than a leader who didn’t ­actually lead Labor to an election, it’s even worse that Labor’s primary vote is not as good as it was under Crean and is showing no sign of improving.