Anthony Albanese’s popularity slumps for the first time since the election – and it’s because of the indigenous vote in parliament: ‘
- Support for Labor and the Voice plummets
- Albanian is ahead of Dutton as prime minister of choice
Declining support for Anthony Albanese’s proposed indigenous vote in parliament is beginning to damage the Prime Minister’s popularity.
Labour’s majority vote has fallen to just four percentage points ahead of the coalition opposition, according to the latest poll by Resolve Political Monitor.
In a double blow to Mr Albanese, support for the vote also continues to decline in the run-up to the referendum in October.
Support for the Indigenous vote in parliament has fallen from 63 percent a year ago to just 46 percent this month.
For a referendum to succeed, a majority of voters across Australia and four of the six states must cast a yes vote.
While Mr Albanese remains the preferred leader to the coalition’s Peter Dutton, the latest results are the lowest for the prime minister in the Resolve polls since he won the federal election 15 months ago. Nine Newspapers reported.
Support continues to wane for both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured with Minister Linda Burney) and the Indigenous Voice to Parliament
The results of the poll indicated that the proposed vote has majority support in Victoria and Tasmania.
But it has a majority of the opposition in NSW, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia, suggesting that the referendum vote would be defeated in two months’ time.
“We’ve seen support for The Voice fall significantly over the past year, and so far the Labor vote has been largely unaffected,” Resolve director Jim Reed told the publication.
“That has led to a growing tension between people voting no and supporting Labour, but now that stretched rubber band seems to have snapped back, so there’s a political dimension and price to the referendum campaign.”
Many polled voters called the vote a worrying problem.
“They comment on what they see as the mishandling of the campaign, the need for a voice, the issue that is divisive or just a distraction, but often they link this directly to the judgment and competence of Albanians,” added Drove to it.
Coalition leader Peter Dutton (pictured in parliament last week) continues to trail the prime minister as leader of choice, despite waning support for Labor
Voters were polled ahead of Qantas’ bold statement of support for The Voice at a launch attended by the prime minister in Sydney on Monday.
The public commitment took off like a lead balloon among Aussies, with many describing the move as “virtue-signalling.”
Core support for Labor fell from 39 percent to 37 percent last month, as the coalition increased its vote by three percentage points to 33 percent.
Primary support for the Greens remains stable at 11 percent, while independent MPs increased their support by one percentage point to 10 percent.
Albanian remains the favorite prime minister with 46 percent of voters, down five percent from four weeks ago.
He remains well ahead of Mr Dutton, who increased his vote as preferred leader from 21 percent to a quarter (25 percent) of voters.
Anthony Albanese was in high spirits at a Qantas launch in Sydney on Monday, despite dwindling support. He is pictured with AFL legend Adam Goodes (left) and Qantas boss Alan Joyce
About 44 percent thought the Albanians did well and 42 percent said he did poorly.
The results were worse for Dutton, where only 31 percent thought he did well, while 44 percent rated his performance as poor.
When asked which party and leader focused on the right issues, 32 percent of voters nominated Labor and Albanians, compared to just 21 percent for the Coalition and Dutton.
Mr Albanese will meet state and territory leaders in the national cabinet on Wednesday.
He will then head to Brisbane for Labour’s annual national conference, where the prime minister will pledge to use the 15 months in government as momentum to drive nation-defining change.
Support for the Voice referendum also continues to fall. Pictured is Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the Garma Festival in East Arnhem, NT earlier this month