Turnbull likes negative polling tweet as Morrison shrugs off Newspoll

Malcolm Turnbull has appeared to support the PM’s falling numbers as Scott Morrison brushes off negative polling.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. Picture: Sean Davey

Scott Morrison has brushed off his descent into negative personal polling territory in today’s Newspoll after Malcolm Turnbull liked a tweet showing the Prime Minister’s numbers going down.

For the first time in his nine weeks as prime minister, Mr Morrison’s dissatisfaction ratings are bigger than his satisfaction ratings at 44 per cent of voters disapproving of his performance compared to 41 per cent approving.

Malcolm Turnbull's twitter account 'likes' the latest Newspoll results. Source: Twitter

“These things bounce around and that’s the case for all politicians. But it just doesn’t distract me from the job I have,” Mr Morrison told K Rock FM in Geelong.

“When you become prime minister in the way that I did, I wasn’t planning for that to occur at that time, but when you have to step up for the leadership as I did, you just get on with the job and the people you’re trying to help.

“I frankly don’t have the time to focus on those sorts of things.”

The government is also facing a wipe-out at the next election according to Newspoll with Labor’s two-party-preferred lead over the Coalition increasing by one point to 54 per cent versus 46 for the government.

Today’s Newspoll results would be concerning for most Coalition backers. But former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has liked a tweet which showed the preferred prime minister gap between Mr Morrison and Bill Shorten closing.

Mr Turnbull appeared to remove his like of the Newspoll tweet later in the morning.

Anthony Albanese said Mr Turnbull’s Twitter activity and reported delays for people trying to access the old age pension were signs the government needed a “mercy rule” to allow it to more easily call an early election.

“It is quite extraordinary that people are having to wait to receive an aged pension,” the opposition infrastructure spokesman told reporters in Brisbane.

“Now that we have this revelation today, we have Malcolm Turnbull is out there liking a tweet that Mr Morrison’s numbers have gone down in Newspoll ... We have dysfunction and chaos wherever we look.

“Perhaps it’s time to have a mercy rule in politics whereby things are so chaotic that the government just calls an election because if you can’t actually process a form for a pensioner who has turned pension age … this is an indictment of a government that simply is incapable of performing basic functions.”

Mr Morrison still leads as preferred prime minister at 43 per cent of respondents, but that is down 2 points from the last Newspoll.

The Opposition Leader’s preferred leader rating has gone up one point to 35 per cent.

Opposition communications spokeswoman Michelle Rowland said Labor was not focused on Newspoll and would continue to roll out policies rather than being a “small target”.

“We’re very focused on ensuring that we present ourselves as a credible alternative government,” she told Sky News “We will be prosecuting our case in the lead up to the next election which will be very close.”

“A lot of people have given advice that the best thing Labor could do is be a small target and Bill Shorten expressly rejected that from the outset.”

Meanwhile, Scott Morrison has demanded the competition watchdog take “action” on rising petrol prices.

The Prime Minister said Australian Competition and Consumer Commissioner Rod Sims should be investigating why motorists are paying upwards of $1.60 a litre.

“This one is a really tough problem because we have got a lot of issues pushing the prices up which are outside Australia, which are things that are outside of our control,” Mr Morrison told regional Victorian radio station K Rock.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Picture: Kym Smith

“But I want some answers out of the ACCC, I mean they are the cop on the beat, they are the ones that we fund to go out and monitor why prices are moving up and down and how they are timed, that is their job, that is Rob Sims’ job, to make sure that all these petrol companies, these fuel companies do the right thing by customers.

“So if they are not, he has the powers, he has the resources, to investigate them and I expect them to get on and apply the pressure, that is why we have an ACCC, it is to deal with that precise issue.”

Mr Morrison said he gave more powers to the ACCC to take action on fuel companies when he was treasurer.

“There are some things we can’t control, like what is happening with international oil prices and things like that, that is outside what any government can do, but we can ensure that the people selling it here behave,” he said.

“I am expecting some action.”

Earlier this month, Mr Sims said motorists were paying too much for petrol.

“In our view, margins are two to three cents a litre too high,” Mr Sims said.

“That’s $400-600 million — that’s a lot of money for Australian motorists.”