Voters are evenly split on the parliamentary Liberal Party’s decision not to dump Tony Abbott as leader, but few voters want Abbott as Prime Minister at the next election, Essential Report’s weekly poll shows.
Voters were evenly split on whether the Liberals were right to stick with Abbott, with 40% each approving and disapproving of the failure of the spill motion to go ahead. However, that result strongly reflects voting intention, with Liberal voters strongly approving and other voters disapproving. Twenty-one per cent of Labor voters approve of the spill not going ahead, although that presumably includes Labor voters keen for the politically toxic Abbott to remain as leader. Eighteen per cent of Liberal voters disapproved of the spill not going ahead. However, 39% of all voters, including 14% of Liberal voters, want Tony Abbott replaced as soon as possible, while 22% favour him being given six months to turn things around.
In any event, 61% of voters believe it is unlikely Abbott will lead the Liberals to the next election, an increase of 10 points since December.
There was some good news for the government on the question of which party is trusted to handle issues best. Forty two per cent of voters trust the Coalition to manage the economy well compared to 25% who trust Labor — with that difference of 17 points having increased since June last year, when it was 13 points. The government’s lead on national security has also increased from 16 points to 19 points. Labor’s leads on education and health both reduced by five points and three points, respectively, although Labor still holds a 10-point lead on both.
Voters are split on where to build the next generation of Royal Australian Navy submarines, with 37% saying they should be built here regardless of cost, including 42% of Labor voters and 33% of Coalition voters; 34% say they should be built here if the cost is similar or less than building them offshore, and 12% say they should only be built here if it is cheaper than offshore. Unsurprisingly, 60% of South Australians thought they should be built here regardless of the cost.
And there’s some good news for advocates of mass surveillance: approval of the government’s data retention proposal has edged up a point to 40% since August, but opposition has fallen seven points to 44%. Younger voters, Labor and Greens voters are strongly opposed to data retention, while Liberal voters and the elderly support it.
On voting intention, no change from last week. The Coalition is on 39%, Labor on 41%, the Greens are on 10%, and the two-party preferred outcome is 54%-46%.
Its amazing that even after all we have seen in the last 18 months, the Libs are considered better money managers.
If Labor and and the Greens are really going to knock them off, this is the area they will have to concentrate on.
I agree it can be tough to understand the trust on economic matters given the shambolic budget and ballooning deficit situation. On the other hand though, voters have been drilled for decades now that the economy “will always be better under the Coalition” so paradoxically the worse the economy gets, the more worried voters are about how much worse it would be under Labor.
I feel the only meaningful circuit-breaker would be Labor coming into power at the right time of the economic cycle (as Howard did) and being able to bask in the warm glow of 7 or 8 years of solid global growth.
Despite Labor doing pretty much exactly the right things during the GFC and earning International plaudits as a result, it is hard for many to properly contextualise “Howard growth” and “Labor GFC” – especially if you work in the media, apparently.
The 63% Labor whop want the Abbotrocity replaced are chooks voting for a BBQ – he is the best hope they have of not losing the next electio.