Premier Peter Gutwein gets the thumbs up from Newspoll

Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein has received the highest approval rating of any premier in the country for his team’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. FULL RESULTS >>

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PREMIER Peter Gutwein is now the most popular premier in the country, according to a Newspoll by The Australian.

The latest survey shows Mr Gutwein pipping West Australia’s Labor Premier Mark McGowan as the country’s most popular Premier.

The Newspoll asked respondents “Are you satisfied with the way (the Premier) is doing (their) job as Premier?”

The poll shows that 84% of people were overall ‘satisfied’ with Mr Gutwein’s performance as Premier at the end of April, which has now climbed to 93%.

Those who were dissatisfied in the same period dropped from 11% to 8%.

Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein now has the highest approval rating among all the state leaders in Australia. Picture: Chris Kidd

When judged on performance in handling coronavirus, Mr Gutwein’s performance was lauded.

The Newspoll asked respondents “How well or badly do you think each of the following leaders is handling coronavirus or COVID-19 at the moment?”

Respondents who thought Mr Gutwein did ‘very well’ increased from 58% in April to 70% in July.

However respondents who thought the Premier did ‘fairly well’ decreased from 31% to 23%.

There were minimal responses in the ‘fairly badly’, ‘very badly’, and ‘don’t know’ responses.

Mr Gutwein’s overall approval increased from 89% to 93%.

The Australian reported the poll of 2949 voters across six states showed, that despite widespread anger at the protest rallies and the breaching of social distancing rules, there remains an unprecedented level of trust in the state premiers’ abilities to keep people safe through the crisis.

This comes as a localised committee heard the Tasmanian Government’s response to the pandemic was ‘magnificent’.

The Premier appeared before the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Public Accounts Inquiry into the government’s economic and health expenditure response to the COVID-19 pandemic yesterday.

“I have never been more comfortable with a group of people working together and being prepared to share information, their thinking in terms of a decision that needed to be made, and their resolve in terms of why difficult decisions needed to be taken,” he said at the time.

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