The Sunday Mail reports a Galaxy survey of 800 respondents conducted on Thursday and Friday shows a further plunge in support for the Bligh government. Unfortunately, the poll was clearly commissioned to take advantage of a horror week for the government, which is great for generating a headline but very poor form if you’re trying to objectively measure how an election might play out. This is the second time Galaxy has taken the field in Queensland in little over a month, which is entirely unprecedented outside of an election campaign. Even so, there’s no avoiding the fact that therese are disastrous figures for Labor: the LNP’s two-party lead has opened up to 59-41, compared with 55-45 in last month’s survey and 50.5-49.5 in Labor’s favour at the election. Labor’s primary vote has sunk from 42.2 per cent at the election to 36 per cent at the last poll to a New South Wales-esque 30 per cent at the current poll, while the LNP has gone from 41.6 per cent to 47 per cent to 48 per cent. The Greens have absorbed a solid chunk of the disaffected Labor vote, up to 12 per cent from 8.4 per cent at the election.
Anna Bligh’s personal ratings are equally worrying for the government: her approval rating is 33 per cent, compared with 50 per cent at the election and 44 per cent for Peter Beattie shortly before his retirement, while her disapproval is at 64 per cent. Further questions elicited predictable responses on corruption issues, with 68 per cent expressing support for Tony Fitzgerald’s recently expressed opinions on the government. Fifty-six per cent backed a ban on political donations, and 86 per cent said they opposed the government’s plan to sell state-owned assets. For all that, the poll provides a disappointment for LNP leader John-Paul Langbroek, whose approval rating has fallen to 34 per cent from 42 per cent in the previous poll. His disapproval rating is 36 per cent.
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