More than half of voters blame Albanese government’s energy policies for rising power bills, new RedBridge poll finds

A new poll shows Australians blame Labor for soaring household power bills. But they aren’t totally sold on supporting the Coalition’s nuclear power plan either.

More than half of voters blame the Albanese government’s energy policies for soaring household power bills and believe the country is heading in the wrong direction.

Exclusive RedBridge polling puts Labor ahead of the Coalition 51 to 49 on two party preferred terms as both major parties continue to haemorrhage votes to minor parties and independents ahead of the soon to be called election.

The research has also found that the Coalition’s pro-nuclear platform has failed to resonate with voters and that the proportion of people who believe the energy option is safe has actually fallen over the past year.

More than half of voters blame the Albanese government’s energy policies for soaring household power bills and believe the country is heading in the wrong direction. Picture: NewsWire/Philip Gostelow

About 53 per cent of the poll of 2007 voters either strongly agreed or agreed that the Albanese government’s renewable energy policies and timelines had pushed their energy costs “through the roof”.

RedBridge director Kosmos Samaras said voters tended to blame incumbent governments for rising power bills and said promises that the transition to renewable energy would deliver cheaper power bills had proven untrue.

“Basically people are blaming governments and it doesn’t matter who is in government they are going to wear the brunt of voters stressed about power bills,” said Mr Samaras, a former Labor strategist.

The divide on party lines between

voters who believed Australia was heading in the right or wrong direction was stark.

About 57 of Labor voters believed Australia was heading in the right direction while 72 per cent of Coalition voters believed the country was heading in the wrong direction.

Mr Samaras said the looming poll would likely be a race to 70 House of Representative seats instead of 76 and repeat the results of the 2022 election when more than 130 seats were decided by preferences.

“It’s going to be the most complicated federal election since federation, so it’s going to be interesting,” he said.

Despite the Coalition’s pro-nuclear crusade, the proportion of voters who believe the domestic production of nuclear energy would fall has only increased by one per cent since 2024 to 38 per cent from 37 per cent in 2025.

In addition, the proportion of voters who believe that nuclear energy is unsafe has increased from 35 per cent in 2024 to 39 per cent in 2025.

RedBridge director Tony Barry said the nuclear debate remained contestable and said the Coalition needed to return to the conversation on economic management.

“The Coalition needs to move the conversation back to its key equities of economic management and they can’t allow Labor to own economic management for free,” said Mr Barry, a former Coalition strategist.

“If the Coalition is going to get to 76 seats it needs to own the economic narrative, they can’t expect to critique their way into government.”

Originally published as More than half of voters blame Albanese government’s energy policies for rising power bills, new RedBridge poll finds