Albo Nosedives in the Polls

It’s official: the Albanese government is up to its neck in it and they haven’t got a Floatie. Worse for them, they don’t know how to swim, not even a dog paddle.

The latest opinion polls are out, and they paint a brutal picture. The fallout from the failed referendum might have been slow coming, but it’s arrived with a vengeance. PM Anthony Albanese, on his own words, made the referendum the single selling-point of his agenda. Now it’s collapsed in flames and the distraction tactic is no longer working.

Australians are looking at what else Labor has to offer, if anything, and they’re not liking what they’re seeing.

Labor is facing an increasingly hostile electorate with 60 per cent of the key 35 to 49-year-old cohort saying they are worse off compared to two years ago, as Anthony Albanese prepares to lean on Jim Chalmers’ mid-year budget update and a migration shake-up to win back angry voters.

The referendum was, in the final analysis, an expensive sideshow. It distracted voters for six months, but with the circus run out of town, voters are facing the harsh reality of soaring power bills, skyrocketing mortgage repayments and rents, and grocery bills going through the roof.

And a government that clearly doesn’t have a clue.

An exclusive Newspoll conducted for The Australian shows 50 per cent of Australians feel they are in a worse financial position than two years ago, with the pain higher for the “Middle Australia” age group who are most exposed to interest rate rises through the soaring cost of rents and mortgage repayments.

Facing mounting economic, national security and legislative pressures, the Prime Minister will reassure nervous Labor MPs when caucus meets on Tuesday that Labor can re-engage voters concerned the government is not on top of rising cost-of-living ­pressures.

That horse has long bolted.

The special Newspoll, revealing 50 per cent of voters feel they are worse off now compared to two years ago, follows a collapse in Labor’s primary vote to 31 per cent and a decline in Mr Albanese’s ­approval ratings. The survey of 1216 voters, conducted between November 20 and 24, showed 16 per cent were better off compared to 34 per cent who said they were about the same.

High-level government discussions have focused on the need to get through the final weeks of parliament before pivoting back to the economy ahead of MYEFO, ­expected in the second week of December.

Except that the final weeks of parliament are going from bad to worse for the government. The debacle over the release of violent, foreign-born sex predators and murderers has taken a new turn, with one of them disappearing from AFP monitoring. Astoundingly, he was allowed into the community after refusing to wear an ankle monitoring bracelet.

Then there is the sudden, worrying resurgence in boat arrivals. Border protection has been a recurrent losing issue for Labor, and you can bet the opposition will not hesitate to belt the government with it.

Finally, the government no doubt hoped to strut its stuff at the COP28 climate beano, starting in just a couple of days. Only, it’s had the rug pulled out from under its feet, with the big theme of the conference set to be the necessity of nuclear energy in lowering emissions. Labor is resolutely opposed to nuclear. On the other hand, Coalition MPs will be delivering speeches affirming a commitment to nuclear. Labor is going to be humiliated at what it had hoped would be a friendly event.

But, in the end, it all comes down to the economy, you stupid louts.

Newspoll shows that younger voters were less likely to feel worse-off with 37 per cent of 18 to 34 year olds agreeing their circumstances were worse with 29 per cent saying there were in fact better off. The dramatic fall in living standards over the past two years – which has seen an almost 10 per cent drop – have been further aggravated by the RBA’s decision earlier this month to raise interest rates again following a five-month pause.

The special Newspoll found that renters were the most likely to feel worse-off than before, with 56 per cent agreeing with this sentiment. Mortgage holders were next at 53 per cent. This compared to 45 per cent of those who owned their home outright. Women were also more inclined to say they were worse-off – 53 per cent – compared to 48 per cent of men. There was a significant difference when split along party political lines. Only 35 per cent of Labor voters considered themselves worse-off compared to 60 per cent of Coalition voters.

The Australian

That’s because Labor is the party of the university-educated wealthy, these days, not the “party of the worker”.

With renters and mortgage-owners offside, Labor is losing the working population. Women, who usually skew left, tend, on the other hand, to react strongly to “kitchen table” issues. With the cost of putting food on the table and keeping a roof over their heads heading for the stratosphere, all the touchy-feely, woke garbage in the world isn’t going to save Labor’s hide.

You can bet Anthony Albanese is looking nervously over his shoulder for the Banquo’s ghosts of Labor leaders past to shake their gory locks.

Anthony Albanese as Prime Minister is on the same downward trajectory in voter support and at a similar time in the parliamentary and electoral schedule as Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard in the months before they were removed as Labor leaders.

Indeed, on some measures Albanese’s support and the ALP primary vote as shown in Newspoll are worse at this stage than they were for both his immediate Labor predecessors.

The Australian

The only thing keeping Albo’s back knife-free — for now — is the fact that the Labor party are well aware that repeating the musical-chairs leadership fiascos of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years will only piss off angry voters even more.