Newspoll: Joyce should quit as voters punish government

EXCLUSIVE | A majority of voters believe Barnaby Joyce should resign as Malcolm Turnbull’s approval crashes.

Voters believe Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce should resign, according to the latest Newspoll. Picture: Kym Smith.

Australians have abandoned Barnaby Joyce, with two-thirds of voters believing the Deputy Prime Minister should either resign to the backbench or leave parliament entirely, intensifying pressure on Nationals MPs to force their leader to step down over the love-child scandal.

After battling a wild political firestorm of its own making for more than a week, the Turnbull government has lost the electoral support it gained over the summer, the latest Newspoll, conducted for The Australian, reveals.

The Coalition’s primary vote has plunged two points in the past two weeks to 36 per cent, with ­disaffected voters moving back to One Nation.

Malcolm Turnbull has not ­escaped the wider fallout since he lashed Mr Joyce over his affair with a younger staffer ­and issued a ban on ministers having sexual ­relations with employees, with the Prime Minister’s personal ­approval rating sliding.

As the stalemate over the ­future of Mr Joyce continued at the weekend among warring ­Nationals, Newspoll found Labor had regained its convincing ­election-winning margin of 53 to 47 per cent in two-party-preferred terms after the Coalition had closed the gap to four points in the first Newspoll of the year a fortnight ago.

Mr Turnbull attempted to rescue the government from the crisis at the weekend, calling Mr Joyce to Kirribilli House in an effort to make peace with the embattled MP and describing the meeting as “frank and warm”.

The poll of 1632 voters taken between February 15 and 18 found Mr Joyce had lost the confidence of the majority of Australian voters, with 65 per cent believing he should quit as Nationals leader. Only 23 per cent backed Mr Joyce to remain in the job.

Queensland, which first elected Mr Joyce to the Senate in 2005 before he switched to the House of Representatives after winning the NSW seat of New England, has ­delivered the harshest assessment of Mr Joyce’s extramarital affair with his former media adviser, Vikki Campion, who is now having his child.

In a breakdown of the national vote, Queenslanders ranked above voters in all other states in demanding he resign as leader of the Nationals, and consequently as Deputy Prime Minister, but also resign from parliament immediately.

Twenty-nine per cent of voters polled believe the member for New England should step down as leader of the Nationals but still remain in parliament on the backbench, 15 per cent believe he should step down and not recontest the next election, and 21 per cent of voters say Mr Joyce should quit politics immediately.

Mr Turnbull’s approval rating as preferred prime minister crashed five points since the start of the year to 40 per cent, returning to levels that plagued his leadership for most of last year.

Mr Turnbull is now only three Newspolls shy of the ominous benchmark of 30 losing polls that he cited as justification for taking the Liberal leadership from Tony Abbott in 2015.

Yesterday Mr Turnbull said he had refused to apologise to Mr Joyce for publicly describing Mr Joyce’s affair as a “shocking error of judgment” that had “appalled” Australians, but at the same time declared he could continue to work with him.

The comments appeared to contradict his statement of last week, which was widely interpreted as a declaration of no confidence, leaving MPs confused as to whether there was a general ­retreat from the demands that Mr Joyce step down.

Supporters of Mr Joyce were continuing to dig in behind their leader, trying to delay any move to ask or force him to resign, at least until the Nationals’ next partyroom meeting next Monday when parliament resumes and Mr Joyce returns from personal leave.

One of Mr Joyce’s key backers, Queensland senator and Resources Minister Matt Canavan said: “I’m confident that our two parties and our two leaders will continue to have a functioning and workable professional relationship as we have done throughout our time in government.”

However, maverick Queensland Nationals MP Ken O’Dowd yesterday said the feedback “on the ground” was that the issue had to be resolved as soon as possible. “And if that means Barnaby resigning as leader of the Nationals and taking his seat in the partyroom, being an everyday politician like myself, then so be it,” he said.

“I think the ball is in Barnaby’s court ... It’s doing damage to the Nationals party and the Coalition. So it’s up for Barnaby to come to a conclusion that will satisfy his constituents, the National Party and the Coalition agreement.”

Nationals MPs, having returned to their electorates to gauge the mood of voters, are ­likely to face a hostile reception, with more people in regional areas demanding Mr Joyce resign from parliament immediately than those in the capital cities, according to the poll.

On the most punitive test of whether Mr Joyce should resign as leader and quit parliament immediately, 25 per cent of regional voters agreed, compared to 20 per cent of capital city voters. On all other measures the results were ­almost evenly split.

The disapproval of Mr Joyce’s behaviour was also evenly divided along gender lines but men ­appearing to be slightly less forgiving than women, with 23 per cent believing he should quit politics altogether compared to 20 per cent of female voters.

The split was only slightly more tipped towards women on whether he should just step down as leader — 28 per cent of men agreeing compared to 29 per cent of women — while 14 per cent of men ­believed he should resign and not recontest the next election compared to 16 per cent of women.

The deep divisions in the Coalition over Mr Joyce’s future were reflected in the poll, with 35 per cent of Coalition supporters saying he should remain as ­Nationals leader compared to 33 per cent opposed to his remaining.

However, asked whether he should resign and go to the backbench, Coalition voters were more forgiving than Labor voters, with 33 per cent supporting a demotion compared to 29 per cent of Labor voters who were more inclined to have him leave altogether.

The poll had Labor remaining on 37 per cent of the primary vote while One Nation picked up from its sudden decline late last year, rising from 5 per cent to 8 per cent, just two points behind its high-water benchmark. The Greens remained unchanged on 10 per cent.

In another sign that voters disapproved of Mr Turnbull’s handling of the scandal, the satisfaction rating of Mr Turnbull’s performance dropped three points to 34 per cent while Bill Shorten’s rating remained stable. Mr Shorten has regained the ground he lost over Christmas, with his approval rating rising two points to 33 per cent — leaving just a seven-point gap between the two leaders.

PM Malcolm Turnbull and Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce. Picture: Kym Smith.