Galaxy poll reveals Malcolm Turnbull on his way out
MALCOLM Turnbull is heading for an election rout in WA, with an exclusive poll predicting four Liberal-held seats in the west will fall to Labor and deliver Bill Shorten power.
The Galaxy poll of West Australians, commissioned by The Sunday Times to coincide with the Prime Minister and his Cabinet visiting WA this week, shows primary support for the Coalition has collapsed by almost 10 percentage points since the Federal election in July last year.
In a damning indictment of Mr Turnbull’s leadership, only 21 per cent trust the Prime Minister to change the GST distribution system to ensure WA receives a fairer share, while 61 per cent do not.
The poll, taken ahead of the PM’s expected arrival in Perth on Sunday night, shows Mr Shorten’s Labor holds a 52 to 48 per cent lead among WA voters on a two-party preferred basis. This represents a swing to Labor of more than six percentage points since the Federal election.
If a swing of this magnitude was repeated at the ballot box at the next election, Federal ministers Michael Keenan (Stirling), Christian Porter (Pearce) and Ken Wyatt (Hasluck), as well as backbencher Steve Irons (Swan), would be booted out of Parliament.
Rising star Andrew Hastie would also face a knife-edge fight to retain Canning.
Mr Turnbull, with a one-seat majority in the House of Representatives, must hold on to every one of his 11 out of 16 Federal seats in WA if he is to have any chance of remaining in government at the 2019 election.
Primary support for the Coalition slumped from 48.7 to 39 per cent, while Labor’s support increased from 32.4 to 37 per cent. The Greens were steady at 11 per cent despite the shock resignation of Scott Ludlam due to a dual-citizenship bungle, while Pauline Hanson’s One Nation was at 5 per cent.
