Satisfaction with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s has plunged with his approval rating slumping to its equal lowest since winning the election in 2022 as the major parties remain split at 50-50 on a two-party-preferred basis.
The Prime Minister’s slump in The Australian’s Newspoll survey has brought his standing on par with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton at a net satisfaction rating of minus 13.
Mr Albanese slumped to this standing in late November 2023 after the last interest rate rise.
His poor result came from his approval rating dropping two points to 41 per cent while his disapproval rating rose three points to 54 per cent.
While the Prime Minister suffered a considerable drop, his political counterpart was not faring much better with Mr Dutton’s approval rating sliding one point to 39 per cent and his disapproval rating rising two points to 52 per cent.
Despite the pair sitting neck-and-neck on their approval ratings, voters were still convinced Mr Albanese would make the better Prime Minister as 45 per cent of voters favoured the Labor leader compared to 37 per cent who felt his Coalition counterpart would make the better leader.
Both leaders suffered a loss compared to the last polling as the Prime Minister suffered a one per cent drop while Mr Dutton fell two per cent.
This comes after Treasurer Jim Chalmers took aim at Mr Dutton, labelling him the “most divisive leader of a major political party in Australia’s modern history” during the annual John Curtin Oration in Melbourne.
Mr Dutton hit back at the Treasurer over his comment when asked about it at a press conference the next day.
“If Australians were doing it so well, and if the economy was running as great as Jim Chalmers claims it is, why’s he dedicating his speech to me?” Mr Dutton asked.
The overall drop in satisfaction comes as heated debate over Palestinian visas dominates political discourse alongside sticky inflation which remains a plague to Aussies suffering through the cost-of-living crisis.
While Labor faces intense criticism over its approach to the cost-of-living crisis, voters are not convinced the Coalition would do much better.
The largest number of voters, 41 per cent, felt inflation would “be about the same as it is now” if Mr Dutton was at the wheel, while 18 per cent said it would be higher and 24 per cent felt it would be lower.
Asked which party they would vote for, the Coalition remained the favourite amongst voters, however they suffered a one per cent drop to 38 per cent while Labor’s standing remained unchanged at 32 per cent.
Support for One Nation rose a point to 7 per cent while the Greens and other minor and independent parties sat unchanged at 12 and 11 per cent respectively.
Based on the poll’s results, Australia is looking at a hung parliament at the next election.
This poll was conducted between the 26th and 30th of August with 1263 voters interviewed online.
