Liberals enjoy slight bounce in the polls as Labor struggles to make inroads

The Tasmanian Liberals have enjoyed a slight bounce in popularity to maintain a lead over their Labor opponents.

The LIberals are still the most popular political party in the state. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

THE Tasmanian Liberals have enjoyed a slight bounce to maintain a lead over their Labor opponents for the fifth quarter in a row, according to the latest EMRS poll.

Support for the Government rose by 3 percentage points, from 36 per cent in August to 39 per cent in the December poll released on Thursday.

Labor rose 1 percentage point to 35 per cent, while the Greens fell from 16 per cent to 14 per cent.

The poll result signals a slight recover in popularity for the Government, which was returned to power in the March state election with 50 per cent of the vote.

The Liberal Party has polled ahead of Labor at every poll since November 2014, with the exception of a single poll in December last year – which was tied at 34 per cent each.

The good news for Labor is that Opposition Leader Rebecca White continues to lead her counterpart Will Hodgman in the preferred premier stakes, at 46 per cent support compared with Mr Hodgman’s 40 per cent.

Ms White’s rating was stable while Mr Hodgman’s rose by 2 percentage points over the previous poll.

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Labor has failed to make inroads into the Liberals’ lead in the polls, but Rebecca White remains the preferred premier. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

EMRS chief operations director Samuel Paske said the polling showed that the Government had reversed a downward trend.

“The increase in support for the Government from 36 per cent to 39 per cent is only a slight upward movement,” he said.

“Nonetheless, it is the first reversal of the downward trend in support since the March 2018 election.

“Furthermore, with support for Labor remaining virtually unchanged at 35 per cent currently, it has become apparent that the Opposition has not been able to make substantial gains post-election, nor the Greens whose support at 14 per cent is down two points since August.

“Support for independents or other minor parties has also shown little change, down marginally by two points to 12 per cent since August 2018.

Mr Paske said the poll showed voter preferences for premier remained largely unchanged.

“These December results reveal that Rebecca White has maintained her lead over Will Hodgman as preferred premier in the past four months, as she did in August and December of 2017 pre-election.

“Overall, this finding, as well as the latest support levels for the parties, indicate that Tasmanian voters are not currently inclined to realign their preferences.”

The poll of 1000 Tasmanian adults was taken between December 15 and 17. It has a margin of error of 3.1 per cent.