Are the Liberals ready yet to admit that the ‘moderates’ have been a disastrous failure? Apparently not, if electing Sussan Ley as federal leader is any indication. Rather than articulate a clear set of centre-right policy alternatives to Labor’s socialist, social-justice, agenda, Ley has pivoted straight to babbling about ‘diversity quotas’.
And they wonder why they keep losing.
Even against a Labor government so unpopular that it has recorded its lowest-ever primary votes for two elections in a row, yet, somehow turned that into a sweeping, landslide victory. How is this possible? Because as much as they hate Labor, the centre-right majority of voters just can’t stomach a Liberal party that’s a wishy-washy, pale-green, imitation.
This is the clear message from the latest polling in Victoria, where Labor have, for the second time in a quarter-century, plunged the state into chaos and debt. Victorian Labor ought to be toast – were it not that they’re up against the Victorian Liberals: a party so wet it makes the federal party seem dry as toast by comparison.
Voters aren’t buying it.
An extraordinary 59 per cent of Victorians believe Labor does not deserve to be re-elected amid deep dissatisfaction with Premier Jacinta Allan, but the government is clinging to an election-winning lead, with a dysfunctional Liberal Party failing to win the trust of voters.
Oddly enough, those two-thirds of voters not wanting to re-elect Labor in Victoria almost exactly mirrors the federal result, where two-thirds of voters voted for anyone but Anthony Albanese’s Labor. But they didn’t vote for the wet, weak, woke, ‘moderate’ Liberals, either.
Voters have also delivered a second personal blow to Ms Allan with Opposition Leader Brad Battin commanding a 41–36 per cent lead in the critical better premier stakes, according to the survey.
But Newspoll has delivered a wake-up call to the Liberal-National coalition, with 60 per cent of voters saying they are not confident the opposition – which has been locked in a civil war over the John Pesutto and Moira Deeming crisis for two years – is ready to govern Australia’s second largest state. Even 23 per cent of Liberal voters said they were not confident their party was ready to run the state.
What we are seeing is what has happened in Britain: voters are fed up to the back teeth with a two-party system that for decades has offered them a choice between a giant douche and a turd sandwich. At least the Brits have Reform, who are powering ahead in the polls.
As Victoria approaches the 500-day countdown to the 2026 election, the survey represents a damning indictment of both sides of politics, according to Newspoll chief Campbell White.
“This poll is a pox on both your houses. However, while there is a swing it is relatively modest and not sufficient for the government to change,” Mr White said […]
With Labor battling a $194bn debt spiral, a budget crisis, unfunded and blown out major road and rail projects, deteriorating basic services and a youth crime wave, Newspoll reveals even 24 per cent of Labor voters believe it is time to give another party a crack at running the state.
A further 20 per cent of Labor voters said they didn’t know if the government deserved a fourth term, meaning 44 per cent of the party’s supporters are not backing Labor to win.
So, it should be a for the Liberal opposition, right?
But almost one in four voters, 23 per cent, reported they were undecided, meaning both leaders have a chance in the next 18 months to win them over and boost their personal rating […]
“The most problematic number for the coalition is that just 40 per cent of voters are confident they are ready to govern Victoria. The only group where a majority are confident is voters aged 65 plus,” Mr White said.
In primary-vote terms, both Labor and the coalition are neck-and-neck on 35 per cent, with support for the Greens at 12 per cent and 18 per cent of voters saying they intend voting for an independent candidate.
If those 18 per cent swung behind a credible Liberal party, the result would be a landslide.
Unfortunately the Liberals seem hell-bent on doing everything they can to scare away voters who are sick to death of Labor.
