Another Newspoll down as Pauline’s Malcolm jihad grows

Advertisement

Makes that 14 Newspolls in a row:

The Coalition is struggling to climb out of a dangerous slump after trying to win back voters on school funding and energy prices, with the government trailing Labor by 47 to 53 per cent in two-party terms.

Malcolm Turnbull has kept his lead over Bill Shorten as preferred prime minister but has failed to revive the government’s primary vote, a key measure that has flatlined at 36 per cent for more than 10 weeks.

I can only repeat, so long as One Nation remains at this level of support, The Coalition will never win another election again. Given One Nation is basically an anti-immigration single-issue entity, the way out for the Coalition is obvious.

There is also a warning in these numbers for Labor, in my view. The Do-Labor Malcolm Government is polling well above the Abbott Government at its nadir and, I put it to you, were it not for One Nation would probably be neck-and-neck with Labor.

Advertisement

If true, that does not say much for Bill Shorten’s leadership and it also poses a sticky question about what it should do regarding immigration before the Coalition does it.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.