Coalition’s primary vote fails to lift beyond record lows as latest Newspoll spells bad news for Sussan Ley
Despite Opposition Leader Sussan Ley abandoning the party’s net zero commitment, the Coalition primary vote has failed to rise above record lows.
The latest News poll published in The Australian reveals most voters back Andrew Hastie as the most preferred Opposition Leader behind Ms Ley, amid growing support for the One Nation preselection.
Labor maintains a 58-42 per cent lead in the two-party preferred vote.
The party’s primary vote is 36 per cent, the Coalition’s is 24 per cent – a figure reportedly the lowest since primary votes were first counted in Australia in November 1985.
Newspaper poll preliminary vote 23/11
One Nation received 15 per cent of the primary vote, followed by the Greens with 13 per cent.
Anthony Albanese remains the clear preferred Prime Minister; He now has 58 per cent of the vote, compared to Ms Ley’s 27 per cent.
19 percent did not make a commitment.
While Ms. Ley’s net approval rating rose slightly from -33 to -29, 47 percent of voters were satisfied with Mr. Albanese’s performance in office.
Support for minor parties and Independents fell from 14 per cent to 12 per cent.
The figures are a major blow for Ms Ley, amid hope that the coalition’s decision to abandon net zero commitments would work in voters’ favour.
But according to Newspoll figures, 21 per cent of voters prefer him ahead of Andrew Hastie (15 per cent), Angus Taylor (9 per cent), Tim Wilson (6 per cent) and Ted O’Brien (3 per cent).
28 per cent of Coalition voters preferred Ms Ley as Opposition Leader, while more than 20 per cent voted for Mr Hastie.
Last week Ms Ley and National Leader David Littleproud announced the Coalition’s new energy policy, following the decision to scrap net zero.
He said the new approach would be “practical and balanced”, involving a mix of shutting down coal power plants, lifting the “ban” on zero-emission nuclear technology and scrapping Labour’s 2030 emissions reduction target and 2050 net zero target.
In a policy document shared by Ms Ley, the Coalition laid out a range of proposed measures, saying their new approach would be “practical and balanced”.
Ms Ley explained that the party was not “anti-renewables”, only that their use had to be “in the right place” and balanced with baseload power.
The new policy will blend the use of gas, hydropower, batteries, coal and their above-mentioned approaches to renewable energy sources.
“We need a government that looks four years back,” Ms Ley said.
“They (Labour) demonized gas. They didn’t want anything to do with it. The energy minister kind of brushed off gas in our system. They reluctantly had to go back to gas because they knew gas was vital.”
The coalition has pledged to support greater gas supplies by “unlocking investment” in supply and infrastructure, streamlining regulations and committing to “annual offshore land releases”.
