Shellshocked party wakes to find itself on ground zero

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Picture: Sean Davey

At least Scott Morrison now knows what he has to work with, and it isn’t much.

It is ground zero for the Liberal Party and the Coalition government.

The first Newspoll of the Morrison government is a horror read.

The Coalition’s primary vote is the lowest it has been since 2008, when Brendan Nelson led the Liberal Party in opposition.

The contest now is between a leader who has never been a prime minister and a Prime Minister who had never been leader until two days ago.

What will shock Morrison is not so much the Coalition numbers.

Something akin to carnage was to be expected considering the ­absolute shambles of last week and the punishment factor for once again turfing out another prime minister.

In as much as the numbers may be a reflection of the chaos rather than of Morrison, some comfort could be taken that it wasn’t worse — if that were possible.

But the fact that Bill Shorten is now the preferred prime minister will grate with Morrison.

If not turned around quickly , that could easily inject a new fear and loathing into the Coalition partyroom.

Reading into the numbers, though, is a sobering message for the Liberal Party.

Labor’s primary vote has soared six points to 41 per cent, the highest it has been since February 2015 — post the ­Coalition’s 2014 budget disaster — while Pauline Hanson’s vote has dropped two points.

This could mean many things but the one undisputed fact is that votes from the Liberal ledger have gone directly onto the Labor led­ger rather than being recycled largely through One Nation.

The fact that Liberal voters are saying they are so pissed off that they would give Labor a go could be disastrous for the Liberal Party.

Morrison faces a gargantuan task.