Labor’s vote has fallen further as leadership turmoil tore the party apart, new polling from Essential Research shows.
Labor’s primary vote has fallen a further point, down to 32% from 34% a fortnight ago, to the benefit of the Coalition, whose vote lifted a point to 49%. With the Greens steady on 11%, the two-party preferred vote is 56-44, Labor’s worst outcome for months.
Voters also strongly blame Julia Gillard for Labor’s problems, with 39% of voters saying Gillard is mainly responsible for the leadership problems, compared to 23% for other people in the party, 18% for Rudd and 10% saying the media were to blame. Liberal voters are much more likely to blame Gillard — 55% of them — but 28% of Labor voters blame Gillard compared to 27% who blame Rudd. Greens voters, however, are much more likely to blame the media — 25%.
Essential’s weekly online poll also shows Qantas’ brand has taken a battering, with 41% of voters saying they now had a more negative opinion of the airline compared to a year ago, compared to only 11% who had a better opinion. That included 18% of voters who said their opinion was a lot more negative, and the view was shared across voting intention even if Liberal voters were less likely to be negative about Qantas.
Who was to blame? The actions of management: both those who were more positive and those who were more negative said management was the main reason — 77% of those who said they now viewed the airline more negatively and 62% positively.
The recommendations of the Gonski review of education funding also received strong support from voters, with 68% supporting a potted summary of the recommendations, across voting intention. There was also strong support — 73% — for ensuring that wealthy élite private schools did not receive an increase in funding.
Yep and Newspoll shows the very opposite. What a waste of ink/bits stories on polls are…
I would be grateful if when reporting small movements in opinion polls the writer reminded readers of the poll’s margin of error. I understand that Newspoll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3%. Is Essential more accurate, in which case what is the point of reporting a ‘fall’ in Labor’s primary vote from 34% to 32%?
As Ben Eltham (NM) rightly said: “Politics should be about more than who has the numbers, and who is best equipped to beat the other team. Perhaps now this episode of the soap opera has ended, we can all go back to thinking about the best policies for Australia as a whole”.
Unfortunately there isn’t going to be a respite. The mediocre media circus for all the obvious reasons will continue. Any lessons learned by “churnalists”? Nope, off course not!
Also, every headline from now on will contain the expected ALP “put-down”.
Eltham (NM): “Gillard Won But LABOR LOST”.
Keane (Crikey):” Essential: the DAMAGE to LABOR shows in the POLLS”
On and on it goes, no clear air for this government.
And the winner is: The rich man’s “puppet”!
While many people join the ALP or the LP or the NP with the faint hope of achieving something altruistic, I expect that this very quickly goes up in a fart of despair when they realise that all of these party machines now exist purely for the people at the top to get and hold power.
People HATE politicians because most of them are nought more than careerists.
I was somewhat delighted to see all sides of this debate publicly forget to keep pretending why they are there and show their true colors as a bunch of egotistical wankers who ONLY care about their own positions.
Next election make them pay, vote for someone who will represent you and not themselves – vote independent.
@Gavin: Hear hear!
@Gocomsys: Electoral democracy is precisely about numbers. Talk about “best policies” begs the question: best according to whose value system? Under Gillard, “best policies for Australia as a whole” means those which she believes will deliver her numbers with industry (the Minerals Resource Rort Thing), numbers with crossbenchers (the carbon tax) and numbers with voters (compensation and surpluses). The fact that she’s not listening to the voters about what they actually want (marriage equality, keeping her commitments, stepping down) means she won’t get the numbers and that will be the end of her policies.
@Grumpy: Yes, I chose my username precisely because of that despair. Labor used to have a strong line on political survival. Shame they’ve decided sticking with Gillard is more important.