I would have thought it was obvious. His government has done everything in its power to destroy working people’s living standards while pretending to be working class.
There’s a line that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese trots out whenever he gets the chance. “My mother raised me with three great faiths,” he says. “The South Sydney Rabbitohs, the Australian Labor Party and the Catholic Church.”
It’s a trio of creeds that frame Albanese as the working-class boy he was, raised in public housing by a single mum on disability payments. Paired with the dental work, weight loss, trim suits and fresh glasses he donned ahead of the last election, Albanese had a compelling image as a man from humble origins made good. It worked.
Albanese took the top job with soaring popularity. His government enjoyed an unusually long honeymoon period. Voters surveyed in 2022 viewed their new leader as genuine, honest and relatable. His net likeability rating jumped to 34 per cent in this masthead’s Resolve Political Monitor.
But after almost three years presiding over a sluggish economy and bruising referendum defeat, views have shifted. More voters say they find him disappointing and, sometimes, weak.
They are looking at his personality afresh, too, after a $4.3 million clifftop house purchase, tetchy media appearances and a week of attention on his free flight upgrades. His likeability rating – calculated by comparing the number of people who rate him positively, neutrally and negatively – has sunk to minus 17, according to this masthead’s Resolve poll.
None of these would have mattered if Albo had not also delivered the largest fall in living standards since the Great Depression.
A globe-leading shocker.
It is inconceivable that Australians would re-elect such a spectacularly failed government, remembering that much of the crash was self-inflicted via the unnecessary gas shock and crazy immigration settings.
Were it not for the repulsiveness of Peter Dutton, my view is the election would be a Coalition landslide win.
It may still be. Roy Morgan has more.
A Coalition Government, with a slim majority, would now win a Federal Election with two-party preferred vote narrowing from last week: L-NP 51.5% (down 1.5%) cf. ALP 48% (up 1.5%), the latest Roy Morgan survey finds.
Primary support for the Coalition was unchanged at 40.5% and remains well ahead of the ALP on 30% (down 1%). Support for the Greens increased 0.5% to 12.5% – and their preferences shifted decisively in favour of the ALP this week after a closer than usual Greens preference split a week ago favoured the Coalition’s two-party preferred vote.
Support for One Nation rebounded 1% to 4.5%, Other Parties were unchanged at 3.5% while support for Independents dropped 0.5% to 9%.
