Thursday 27 February 2020
Morrison has now slumped to the lowest likeability of any Australian leader since Andrew Peacock in 1990
The
Canberra Times,
18 February 2020:
Prime
Minister Scott Morrison, whose popularity has taken a big hit over
the summer. Picture: Karleen Minney
It
will be no surprise to Scott Morrison that his handling of the
bushfires was a major political setback, and the latest set of
polling only confirms the extent. The question will be whether the
mud sticks.
Morrison
sailed through last year's election on a high, with a likeability
rating of 5.1, not great by historic standards, but higher than any
party leader since Labor's Kevin Rudd after winning the 2007
election.
He
has now slumped to the lowest of any leader since Andrew Peacock in
1990, and below the record low that Bill Shorten put on the
scoreboard as Labor leader last year. Shorten had a dismal
likeability rating of 3.97 in the ANU Election Study; Morrison has
now scored 3.92 in a January poll by the ANU's Centre for Social
Research.
It
was personal. Half the people polled were asked to think about the
performance of Scott Morrison when judging how good or bad a job the
government had done on the bush fires; the other half was told to
think about the performance of the government. You guessed it. When
prompted by reference to Morrison, 64 per cent said the government
had done a bad or very bad job, compared with 59 per cent when
thinking about the government more broadly.
Anthony
Albanese moved up in popularity, from 4.87 in June to 5.04 now - the
highest of any Labor leader since Kevin Rudd at his peak in 2007, and
higher than Mark Latham and Paul Keating.
The
same message came from the Newspoll, which showed Labor overtaking
the Coalition in the preferred prime minister ranks in January, for
the first time since a brief hit from the Liberal leadership turmoil
in August 2018. In September last year, 50 per cent of voters
preferred Morrison for prime minister, against Anthony Albanese's 31
per cent, according to Newspoll. By January, Albanese was on 43 per
cent and Morrison 39. Worse, Morrison's satisfaction rating went
through the floor.
"I've
got a thick skin," Morrison said on Monday when asked about
criticism of him at the bush fire relief concert. "And I
understand that over the period of the summer, you know, that people
felt really raw about things ... My response is just to do things and
get things done."….
But
to date, Morrison has essentially failed to present any kind of
ambitious reform agenda or coherent plan. As a result his Prime
Ministership has turned into an endless round of inadequate and
misguided responses to disaster, crisis and scandal…...
In
the ANU survey just after the election last year, 45 per cent of
people said the government should allow new coal mines; now only 37
per cent think so. As banks and big investors stop lending to thermal
coal and turn their attention also to reducing investments in oil and
gas, Morrison needs to align himself with the inevitable and start
leading on new ideas for regional and remote communities.
He
needs a better idea than the only one he seems to have rattling
around in the top drawer - throwing more cash at the regions. Cash is
handy, but it is not a reason for confidence or hope.
Labels:
poll,
Scott Morrison,
statistics
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3 comments:
He's an abysmal failure on all counts. A deceitful, mendacious, corrupt lier. The one conselation in this is the more unpopular he becomes, the harder it will be to pass his draconian religious freedom bill through the parliament.
No wonder tbis guy is so unpopular. Apart from swanning around Hawaii while Australia burned, his policies are geared for the rich, while the ordinary people are forgotten.
Hardly surprising. The bloke is a wanker and a tosser.
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