Resolve Political Monitor: Crushing blow forAnthony Albanese as Aussie voters send him a harsh reality check on key issue

A new poll shows many voters blame Albania’s government for runaway inflation, despite efforts by the finance minister and a Labour Party predecessor to smear the Reserve Bank.

According to the latest Resolve Political Monitor poll for Nine Newspapers, 51 percent of voters believe the government’s first responsibility is to rein in rising prices.

Only 27 percent of voters blame the central bank, despite comments from Finance Minister Jim Chalmers and former Labor Finance Minister and current party leader Wayne Swan criticising the RBA’s reluctance to cut rates.

The Resolve poll also showed the Coalition had a big lead on the question of which party was best managing the economy, with 37 percent of voters backing the Peter Dutton-led team and just 26 percent preferring Anthony Albanese’s Labor line-up.

When asked which party they trust to keep the cost of living low, 32 percent named the Coalition, followed by 25 percent the Labour Party.

When asked who is best at managing jobs and wages, 33 percent said the Coalition and 32 percent said Labor.

The Labor Party saw its vote fall from 29 to 28 percent over the past month, while the Coalition remained stable at 37 percent.

However, based on the preference of two parties, this would mean the rivals are neck and neck.

When voters were asked how they would divide their preferences, support for the Coalition rose to 51 percent in two-party terms, while Labor was on 49 percent.

One of the few bright spots for Labor was that Albanese took a one-point lead and was preferred as prime minister over Dutton, with the men polling 35 and 34 percent respectively.

The Greens held their minor party vote steady at 13 percent, while Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party also remained unchanged at 6 percent. However, support for independents rose nationally from 10 to 12 percent.

A recent poll shows opposition leader Peter Dutton being beaten by Mr Albanese as the favourite prime minister.

Resolve chief executive Jim Reed told Nine newspaper that “voters thought the RBA was trying to fix problems that were partly caused by government”.

“Being blamed for inflation is even worse than feeling like nothing is being done to reduce inflation. That’s why the government has done everything it can to limit the impact,” he said.

‘But that doesn’t seem to work. More and more people think that the government is responsible for this.’

After last week’s bleak news that Australia’s GDP grew by just 0.2 percent in the final three months of 2023, Chalmers said high interest rates were “crushing” the economy.

Mr Swan, who was finance minister during the Labor governments of Rudd and Gillard, went further on Friday, accusing the RBA of “slapping itself in the face” and being “counterproductive” by not cutting interest rates.

“The government is doing a lot to reduce inflation, but the Reserve Bank is just slapping itself in the face. It’s counterproductive and it’s not good economic policy,” Swan said.

The Resolve poll also showed that the coalition had maintained a strong lead on the question of which party was the best economic manager,

On Sunday, Chalmers distanced himself from Swan’s comments about the RBA, saying they went “much further” than he would have gone himself.

However, he continued to insist that the bank was “crushing” the economy.

Angus Taylor, the coalition’s shadow finance minister, said the Albanian government was trying to blame the bank for its own mistakes.

The poll also found that the Greens retained their primary vote at 13 percent, while Pauline Hanson’s One Nation vote remained unchanged at 6 percent. However, core support for independents across the country rose from 10 to 12 percent over the course of the month.

The RBA has set the cash rate at a 12-year high of 4.35 per cent in a bid to bring inflation back to the targeted range of two to three per cent.

In July, inflation fell to 3.5 percent, compared to 3.8 percent in June.

The central bank predicts that headline inflation will not fall to 2.8 percent until June 2025, bringing inflation within target for the first time since 2021.