Senior Liberal sources expect historic loss with Peter Malinauskas easily leading Vincent Tarzia as preferred premier
With Premier Peter Malinauskas winning approval ratings across the board senior Liberal sources say they are still backing the current Opposition Leader, but for how long?
Peter Malinauskas has opened a huge lead as preferred premier over his Liberal rival Vincent Tarzia, with a stunning opinion poll showing almost three-quarters of South Australians favour him in the top job.
The exclusive YouGov poll, which The Advertiser revealed on Saturday showed Labor storming to a historic election landslide – with 72 per cent preferring Mr Malinauskas as Premier.
This was a 58-point lead over Mr Tarzia, with the Liberal leader preferred by just 14 per cent and an identical proportion undecided.
Mr Malinauskas enjoyed a 70 per cent or better rating across almost every age group, region, parental status and gender.
Even in traditional Liberal bases, among the 65-plus age group and outside metropolitan Adelaide, Mr Malinauskas had preferred premier ratings of 72 per cent and 69 per cent respectively.
The Advertiser on Saturday revealed the YouGov poll showed Labor holding a record 67 per cent to 33 per cent lead in two-party preferred stakes, which, if repeated at the March 21 election, would consign the Liberals to a paltry two seats.
Mr Malinauskas told the Sunday Mail politics had never been more volatile and demanded his team remain “focused and disciplined on driving the state forward”, while Mr Tarzia said the Liberals knew the election would be tough but vowed to “keep fighting hard”.
Senior Liberal sources said they were bracing for the party to win only a handful of seats at the March 21 state election but believed Mr Tarzia was likely to cling on to the leadership until then.
The YouGov poll, of 903 respondents conducted from May 15-28, showed Mr Malinauskas had a net satisfaction rating of 52 per cent, with 70 per cent satisfied with his leadership, 18 per cent dissatisfied and 12 per cent undecided.
In a similar result to preferred premier, at least two-thirds of respondents were satisfied with Mr Malinauskas’s leadership performance across every category.
By contrast, Mr Tarzia had a net leadership satisfaction rating of -9 per cent, with 22 per cent satisfied, 31 per cent dissatisfied and 47 per cent undecided.
Mr Tarzia said the Liberals had “stabilised” since he won the leadership last August, after David Speirs spectacularly quit, and was “pushing on”.
“We’ll continue working hard every day because South Australians need a strong opposition with ideas that will improve their lives,” he said.
“We will keep showing up because South Australians need us to. They need a strong opposition that can hold a power-hungry, big government to account for breaking their biggest promises.”
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Originally published as Senior Liberal sources expect historic loss with Peter Malinauskas easily leading Vincent Tarzia as preferred premier
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