Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has led the Coalition to a record low 17 per cent primary vote in opinion polls. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Mimicking One Nation isn’t working out too well for the Coalition, with the latest opinion polls recording a record low for the Opposition and even a slide backwards for Pauline Hanson’s party.
Labor is back on top in this fortnight’s Newspoll. Its primary vote has risen from 30 per cent to 33 per cent, while One Nation has slipped from 31 per cent to 29 per cent.
The Coalition, however, is at a dismal 17 per cent, its worst-ever primary vote result.
When the party hit an 18 per cent primary vote in polling under former leader Sussan Ley, it was the catalyst for her ousting.
Yet while rumblings have already begun inside the Liberal Party over Angus Taylor’s future, the Opposition Leader himself is doing his best to stay philosophical about it all – and to continue to curry favour with One Nation voters.
“I’ve never attacked One Nation voters and I never would. I never will,” he said during a media interview,” adding that Labor is “the problem for this country”.
Mr Taylor said the Coalition lost voters’ trust during COVID and has a huge task ahead to win it back.
“We do know that we’ve got some real work to do to rebuild trust with the Australian people, and that takes time,” he said.
“It takes discipline. It takes hard work. And we need to keep doing that … I think people do feel as though there’s been a breach of trust. Inflation has raged for years since then.
“Labor has not fixed this, by the way. I mean, you know, it’s not just what was done during COVID. It’s what’s been done since that has been a failure.”
Liberal frontbencher Melissa McIntosh has called for a rebranding of the party in light of the consistently poor polling results.
The NDIS shadow minister said it was no use for anyone to be putting their “head in the sand” over the party’s position.
“I’m putting myself out on a limb a little bit; I think it’s time for the Liberal Party to rebrand itself,” she said.
“Some people think that we’re stuck in the past and our policies need to resonate with the Australia of today and the future.
“So I think it’d be a really good time for us to revisit our values. What we stand for and the way we project ourselves to Australians.
“That takes a lot of work inside the party to go back to our roots, and then to look at our messaging and our communications to the Australian public, because you can’t keep getting poll after poll saying that it’s diabolical out there and just ignore it.”
Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson, however, has suggested little stock should be given to the polling results.
“I think that’s a complete distraction,” he told the media at Parliament House on Monday morning (29 June).
“We need to make sure that we’re ending the corruption; we’re stopping inflation; we’re cutting taxes; and we’re backing small business … I think the focus of the Australian people is their anger with their government, and as a consequence, they’re looking around and trying to make sure that there’s an alternative.
“There’s more work to be done, and no one’s trying to pretend otherwise.”
Deputy Opposition Leader Jane Hume said Mr Taylor should “absolutely” remain Liberal Party leader and take the Coalition to the next federal election, despite the abysmal polling results.
“I think Angus Taylor has prosecuted against this terrible Labor budget exceptionally well,” Senator Hume said.
“He really has led the charge in that debate, even if others potentially have got some of the credit.”
Environment Minister Murray Watt took aim at One Nation over the latest Newspoll, saying Senator Hanson’s recent controversial speech to the National Press Club has done her party no favours.
One Nation’s slip in the polls was recorded following that address.
Senator Watt described the speech as a “reality check” for many Australians.
“We have seen a bit of a change in the public mood towards One Nation since Pauline Hanson’s press club speech,” he said.
“I think that speech was a bit of a reality check for a lot of Australians who were thinking about voting for One Nation.
“Because they got to see that as much as people are under pressure at the moment, things could get worse under One Nation with all the cuts they were talking about imposing.”
But the minister conceded polling numbers will “bounce around a bit” right up until election day.
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Region Canberra.
