Fresh poll reveals reasons voters deserted Coalition
A fresh poll has added to Peter Dutton’s election woes, revealing two key issues that have turned voters away from the Coalition.
The Redbridge-Accent poll for News Corp found global uncertainty caused by Donald Trump was one factor that had affected the Coalition’s vote.
Dutton had piggybacked on a number of Trump themes, such as migration, and fashioned himself as a strongman before suddenly seeking to distance himself from the US president.
The second issue uncovered in the poll related to concern over the cost of the Coalition’s nuclear policy. The Coalition says its modelling has costed nuclear at $300 billion, but Labor claims the CSIRO put the price tag at $600 billion.
The poll also showed Labor has extended its two-party-preferred lead an extra point to 53 per cent since the start of April (up from to 49 per cent in November to the Coalition’s 51 per cent).
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News Corp reports that the change in Labor’s fortunes has been driven by Millennial and Gen Z voters, many of whom live in critical seats.
Voters feared they would be worse off under the Coalition and that the conservatives would cut Medicare.
Meanwhile, with only two days to go before Saturday’s election, Dutton will finally release his policy costings.
Dutton and shadow treasurer Angus Taylor have promised their financial receipts, to be released on Thursday, will show an improvement to the federal budget if the Coalition is elected.
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Savings have been assured by repealing Labor’s $17 billion income tax cuts, axing investment in electricity transmission infrastructure and shrinking the size of the public service.
“The Liberal Party is always a better economic manager, and interest rates have been higher for longer under Labor,” Dutton told journalists in Melbourne on Wednesday.
But the Coalition has also promised to increase spending, including a $20 billion regional investment fund, as well as measures that reduce the tax take over the next few years, such as a $1200 tax rebate and a $6 billion cut in the fuel excise by 25 cents a litre.
Dutton visited his 15th petrol station of the campaign on Wednesday to promise cheaper fuel.
Before the last election, the Coalition, under then-prime minister Scott Morrison, halved the fuel excise to counter surging petrol prices caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
But the rationale for the cut this time around is less clear, given petrol prices are considerably cheaper than they were three years ago.
Filling up a Holden Commodore belonging to the Liberal candidate for Aston, Manny Cicchiello, Dutton selected the 91 octane ULP, costing 179 cents a litre.
“Everybody is worse off under this prime minister, and only by voting for your Liberal or National candidate can we get rid of a bad government,” he said at the BP service station in Scoresby in Melbourne’s east.
Dutton will start Thursday in Brisbane, having visited 13 electorates out of a promised 28 in a final-week blitz before polls close on Saturday.
