Labor’s attacks on the Opposition Leader have bitten hard. If Dutton wants to be PM, he needs to make a rapid comeback
Anthony Albanese is far more popular than Peter Dutton. If the Opposition wants to win, they need to sort themselves out quickly, writes James Campbell.
Analysis
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With only three weeks left until polling day, Peter Dutton needs to find an extra gear if he is going to have any chance of winning.
The latest RedBridge-Accent tracking poll of 20 key marginal seats shows Labor’s attacks on the Opposition Leader have bitten and bitten hard.
On the other hand whatever the Liberals have been saying about Albo, not only isn’t working, it seems to be making him more popular.
Just to be clear though, neither leader could remotely be described as real world popular, there has however been a big shift in their relative unpopularity since early February.
Back then the Prime Minister was far more unpopular than his opponent.
Today, not only is he half as unpopular as he was two months ago, he’s now clearly more popular than Dutton.
The result has been a seven point drop in the Coalition’s primary vote from 43 per cent to 36 per cent since early February.
If there’s a silver lining for the conservatives it’s that the vast majority of this movement has been to minor parties and not to the ALP which means there’s probably still time for these people to come back.
No doubt there will be plenty of people ready to offer the Liberal leader advice as to how he might get them.
To which my two cents would be ‘try and look more like you’re enjoying yourself’.
In private the Opposition Leader is good company who doesn’t take himself seriously.
He should start showing us that side of himself instead of the Grim Reaper he’s been giving us at his press conferences.
We know Albo’s been rubbish – he can take that as a given – what we want from him is upbeat, spirit lifting stuff about how he’ll make things better.
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Originally published as Labor’s attacks on the Opposition Leader have bitten hard. If Dutton wants to be PM, he needs to make a rapid comeback
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