Malcolm Turnbull is a huge disappointment who’s been held back by his own party and has not made even one improvement to the people’s lives, according to the unanimous view of undecided voters.
Focus groups in western Sydney and Melbourne were unanimous that Mr Turnbull had failed to achieve anything for them and showed deep frustration. “If he just had the guts, the political will,” said a younger voter from Melbourne, reflecting a widely held view.
Said an older voter in western Sydney: “He just needs to grow, pardon me, balls.” Another said: “We’ve switched off.”
The research by Ipsos conducted last week for Fairfax Media found a “strong consensus” that Mr Turnbull “has sorely disappointed”…
Among the four groups of undecided voters, two each from marginal electorates in Melbourne and western Sydney, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten was not seen as an attractive option, either…
When asked to name anything that Mr Turnbull had accomplished in nearly two years as Prime Minister, people in the groups were unable to name anything that affected their lives.
Meanwhile, The Australian has published its latest Newspoll survey, which shows the Coalition trailing Labor by 47% to 53% in two-party terms, but Malcolm Turnbull widening his lead over Bill Shorten as preferred prime minister:
Mr Turnbull has kept his lead over Mr Shorten as preferred prime minister since taking the Liberal leadership in August 2015 but saw the gap narrow to 8 percentage points in early July.
The gap widened to 11 percentage points in the last Newspoll two weeks ago and widened further to 15 points in the latest survey.
The number of voters who prefer Mr Turnbull increased from 43 to 46 per cent in the latest Newspoll while those who prefer Mr Shorten fell from 32 to 31 per cent.
The latest survey is the 17th consecutive survey where the Coalition has trailed Labor in two-party terms, a tally that is being closely watched by Mr Turnbull’s conservative critics…
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation has suffered its second setback in consecutive Newspolls, with its primary vote slipping from 9 to 8 per cent…
Weeks after two Greens senators quit because they breached the citizenship rules, Greens leader Richard Di Natale has gained a boost with the party’s primary vote rising from 9 to 11 per cent, its strongest result since May last year.
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‘Do-Nothing’ Malcom or ‘King Slayer’ Bill. Hardly an appealing choice for voters, is it?
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
