The honeymoon is over for the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull with today’s Newspoll revealing the Coalition and Labor deadlocked in the polls.
The latest Newspoll, by The Australian reveals the Coalition’s primary vote has slumped three points to 43 per cent. This is the lowest level since Mr Turnbull replaced Tony Abbott as Prime Minister five months ago.
It reflects an unsettled Australian public after a confusing debate about the GST, a series of ministerial resignations and support for Labor’s plan to change negative-gearing tax breaks.
The primary vote support for the Coalition has fallen three points to 43 per cent in just three weeks.
The two-party preferred vote is now level at 50-50 according to The Australian Newspoll. Labor’s primary vote rose one point to 35 per cent while the Greens lifted from 11 per cent to 12 per cent.
The PM could be turning to prayer today as he reads the dismal news, satisfaction with Mr Turnbull’s performance as Prime Minster fell five points in the poll, to 48 per cent while the Opposition Leader’s satisfaction rating rose three points, to a four-month high of 28 per cent.
Mr Turnbull still remains the preferred prime minister though over Mr Shorten though the PM is down four points to 55 per cent. Mr Shorten rose one point, to 21 per cent, after jumping six points in the previous poll.
The uplift in figures are in part due to Labor’s negative-gearing plan with 47 per cent in favour of the proposed scrapping of negative gearing for established properties from July next year.
Yesterday Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce fired back at the plan saying that it would reduce the value of properties which people already own.
Those with a mortgage could suddenly find the value of their home is less than the money they borrowed from the bank.
“There are two sides to every coin,” Mr Joyce told Sky News.
However Mr Shorten said that the government was running out of ideas.
“We know the government’s attacking us because they have run out of ideas. They actually don’t know what they want to do for Australia and the economy.”
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You know things aren't going too well when Scott Morrison who usually appears on the Ray Hadley show on Mondays to tell his master what's happening in the treasury failed to turn up. The master was not impressed
It's quite ironic considering it was leaked that Scott Morrison loudly proclaimed in a cabinet meeting a month ago, that he had 2GB in his pocket. Of course there was some truth to that, as he was their favourite until he back stabbed Abbott.
But before Abbott got dumped I remember endless articles here and commenters saying that if only Turnbull took over they would support the Libs. I thought then and this has confirmed that he is the Liberal leader that ALP voters want and do anything for except actually vote for him. The big problem - which Hillary is finding - is that voters want authenticity. They might not have liked Tony but they knew what he stood for and that he actually believed in it. You can't say either about Turnbull.
His first mistake was making Morrison Treasurer. It's hard to be the feelgood PM when you have a hard-liner making the big decisions and dangling the prospect of a 50% increase in GST - ie, a 50% tax increase (a 5% increase in the cost of almost everything, overnight).
Sure, they talk about compensating families and lower-income earners, but we saw how the Abbott Government viewed such compensation - as undeserved entitlements. Parenting Payments and Family Benefits, for example, were a part of the initial compensation scheme when the GST was introduced, but it wasn't long before a conservative government decided low-income people should no longer be compensated.
Once-deserving families were suddenly "leaners" holding back the nation and making life difficult for the wealthy "lifters".
I see no reason why any new compensation would be viewed any differently by a future conservative government seeking to make life easier for the rich.
Still, the choice between "affable" Turnbull and script-reading Shorten is not an easy one.