Albanese has pointed to the government’s success in parliament – including thepassage of 45 bills last month – to assure Australians he would shield them from economic hardship,while signalling more help to come before the federal election due next year.
“We started the year by delivering a tax cut for every single Australian taxpayer,and we’re ending it by delivering more help for households,” he said on November 30.
“The number one priority of my government is to continue providing support. My message is ‘we have your back’.”
Resolve director Jim Reed said the weaker outlook for the economy in the national accounts last week,showing annual growth of just 0.8 per cent,combined with concerns about community safety to cloud the outlook for many Australians.
“These results would make Labor think carefully about election timing,not just because they would need to explain going early,but you would want to turn this trend around before pressing go,” Reed said.
“I can understand why the line about having people’s backs was chosen. It’s positive,forward-looking and can stretch to fit a number of policy areas.
“For the slogan to be credible,Labor would need to demonstrate they are focused on people and have the solutions to their problems.”
Core support for the Greens rose slightly from 11 to 12 per cent in the latest survey,while support for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation increased from 5 to 7 per cent and independents were steady on 11 per cent.
Because the Resolve Political Monitor asks voters to nominate their primary votes in the same way they would write “1” on the ballot papers for the lower house at the election,there is no undecided category in the primary vote results,a key difference from some other surveys.
While the Resolve Political Monitor has a different methodology,the latest results confirm a decline in core support for Labor since the party’s primary vote reached 42 per cent as recently as May last year.
The fall in Labor’s primary vote over the past month,from 30 to 27 per cent,represents one of the steepest falls for the party in the Resolve series and takes the party to its lowest result since the election.
Asked to name their preferred prime minister,voters are deadlocked on 35 per cent each for Albanese and Dutton. This reflects a slight fall for both leaders since last month,when they were on 37 per cent each,and an increase in the number of undecided voters.
Asked how they rated Albanese,31 per cent of people said his performance was good and 57 per cent said it was poor. His net result,which subtracts the “poor” from the “good”,slumped to minus 26 percentage points from minus 14 one month ago.
Forty per cent of people said Dutton’s performance was good and 42 per cent said it was poor. His net result was minus 2 percentage points,a reversal from his positive net rating of 5 points one month ago.
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news,views and expert analysis.Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.