Scott Morrison dominates resurgent Anthony Albanese in Newspoll
Anthony Albanese’s approval ratings have rebounded but Scott Morrison continues to dominate.
Anthony Albanese’s approval ratings have rebounded in the wake of the US and Queensland elections but Scott Morrison continues to dominate with ongoing record support for his leadership nationally.
An exclusive Newspoll conducted for The Australian shows the Coalition maintaining its election-winning lead despite a narrowing of the two-party-preferred vote to 51-49 per cent.
In a week dominated by the US election race, a renewal of trade tension with China and the re-election of the Palazsczuk government in Queensland, Australian voters have marked little change in sentiment to the Morrison government.
But at the same time, the Labor leader has enjoyed an eight-point turnaround in support to record his second-highest net approval ratings this year.
The latest poll shows a one-point drop in popular support for the Coalition to 43 per cent since the previous survey was published on October 10. This remains 1.6 points ahead of its election-winning primary vote of 41.4 per cent in May last year.
Labor’s primary vote lifted a point to 34 per cent, also slightly above its election result of 2019.
The shift in primary support appears to have come through a direct transfer of votes from the Coalition to the Labor ledger as opposed to past polls showing a redirection of votes through minor party preferences.
As a result, the two-party-preferred vote has come back from 52-48 per cent shown in the previous Newspoll to 51-49, still favouring the Coalition.
This is two points down on the peak lead held by the Coalition in July when it commanded a 44 per cent primary vote and a two-party-preferred lead of 53-47 per cent.
Popular support for One Nation, which collapsed in the Queensland election, remained firm at 3 per cent nationally, which was in line with its federal election result. The Greens remained unchanged at 11 per cent, as did other minor parties on 8 per cent.
Mr Morrison maintains his dominant lead as the preferred prime minister, lifting a point to 58 per cent against his rival who also gained one percentage point to 29 per cent.
While the Prime Minister’s personal approval ratings remained largely unchanged — down a point to 64 per cent — the greatest movement in the latest Newspoll was an improvement for Mr Albanese.
The Opposition Leader has recorded an eight-point turnaround in net satisfaction levels to plus 4 per cent. It follows Mr Albanese’s success at shutting down the internal climate change battle between senior factionally opposed frontbenchers Joel Fitzgibbon and Mark Butler, with the Labor leader backing a revised energy policy promoting gas in line with the government’s plans.
Those satisfied with Mr Albanese rose four points to 43 per cent while those dissatisfied fell by the same margin to 39 per cent. This followed a similarly sized fall for the Labor leader in September when his numbers fell to a net negative approval rating of minus four.
The poll was conducted between Wednesday and Saturday and surveyed 1510 voters across mainland capital cities and the regions. The poll was delayed by a week due to the Queensland election.
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