The incompetence of Vic Labor premier Allan and her predecessor, the despised Daniel Andrews is finally coming home to roost.
In the latest Redbridge polling the LNP recorded a primary vote of 40% versus 31% for Labor. This puts 2PP neck and neck at 50/50.
Jacinta Allan is making political mistakes every day. She was even blindsided by the LNP Question Time walkout last week after refusing to answer questions from the opposition about her relationship with the CFMEU.
Many of Allan's actions seem juvenile, at best, including her latest dig at South Australia winning a architectural award for Adelaide. The negative reaction was so swift her social media posts were deleted overnight.
Allan is the creation of Andrews, a poor imitation without the gravitas.
The LNP are now in play in Victoria following scandal after scandal and failure after failure.
And the fact that the Suburban Rail Loop Business case is still not in the hands of Infrastructure Australia following an initial reqiuest two years ago says everything. It is a financial basketcase and draining cash needed for basic services.
Victorians have had enough of this rotten Labor government.
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Victorian voters vent anger at Allan government in shock poll result
Victorian voters are abandoning Jacinta Allan’s government amid concerns over health spending cuts, with new polling putting the Coalition and Labor neck and neck for the first time in almost seven years.
Shannon Deery
August 5, 2024 - 8:02AM
365 comments
Voters are abandoning the state government, led by Premier Jacinta Allan and Deputy Premier Ben Carroll. Picture: David Crosling
Voters are abandoning the Allan government amid concerns over health spending cuts, with a new poll revealing the Coalition and Labor are neck and neck for the first time in almost seven years.
The survey from bipartisan pollster RedBridge reveals just 31 per cent of Victorians would vote for the ALP if an election was held now, while support for John Pesutto’s opposition has surged to 40 per cent.
Once preferences of minor party voters are distributed, Labor and the Coalition would be tied 50-50 on a two-party preferred basis, according to the poll of 1514 Victorians.
It is the first time the parties have been neck and neck since December 2017, a year before the Coalition went on to lose the 2018 election.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has lost ground in the polls. Picture: Diego Fedele
At that time the Coalition recorded a primary vote of 41, one above their current support, while Labor was at 36 per cent, five points more than now.
Labor’s support is also six points lower than the 37 it recorded at the 2022 election.
The poll is expected to send shockwaves throughout the Victorian ALP, putting Premier Jacinta Allan under significant pressure.
RedBridge director and former Labor Party strategist Kos Samaras said concerns about health system cuts appeared to be behind the massive drop in support for the government.
“Labor’s fine balancing act of managing debt, whilst ensuring that debt did not compound the cost of living crisis, failed when stories of cuts to health services started to emerge,” Mr Samaras said.
“This was in reality the most profound moment in this government’s almost 10 year history.
“It was cuts to health that countless Victorians have highlighted with us as a major reason for shifting support to minor parties and the Coalition.
“In just over two years, Labor will be asking Victorians for 16 years (of government) and they will only be granted that privilege if they can illustrate a capacity to deliver on the basic services that many Victorian cannot afford to lose right now — health being one of them.”
Conducted between July 23 and August 1, the survey shows Labor well behind with migrant and regional voters as well as among low income earners and homeowners.
RedBridge said mums and dads were also shifting their vote, as well as those who did not have a university education and voters in Melbourne’s west – Labor’s traditional heartland.
John Pesutto’s opposition has surged 40 per cent. Picture: Getty Images
Throughout June and July, the government has faced countless crises relating to its
push to force hospitals to slash budgets, with health services warning they could have to close emergency departments and specialist wards, reduce surgeries and cull hundreds of front line jobs.
The demands have come despite Ms Allan doubling down on the $34.5bn Cheltenham-Box Hill stage of the Suburban Rail Loop amid funding and cost blowout concerns on both that section and the remainder of the project.
The poll is also the first to be done since the
eruption of the CFMEU scandal, which saw
Labor cut ties with the militant union as evidence emerged of kickbacks and rorts of Victoria’s major projects and infiltration by criminal gangs.
And the government has been under pressure as violent youth crime soars.
The Coalition would need to pick up an extra 17 seats to form government at the 2026 election.
But there are currently 20 seats, held by margins of less than eight per cent by Labor, including 12 seats with margins lower than 5 per cent.
The poll could sure-up support for Mr Pesutto, who has faced almost 18 months of leadership speculation which has escalated in recent weeks with some Liberal Party MPs openly canvassing support for a change.
Some Liberals have been pushing for the under-siege leader to be replaced before a potentially
damaging Federal Court defamation trial being brought on by exiled MP Moira Deeming begins.
Others want to wait to assess the fallout of the court case in September to determine whether he can continue to head up the party.
There is also a view among Mr Pesutto’s most fierce detractors that a strong poll result for the Coalition should provide even more impetus to replace him, as they say they would be even better placed to win in 2026 with an alternative leader.
Support for the Coalition is at its highest since June 2021, when a poll had the Michael O’Brien-led party on 41 per cent of the primary vote.
But at that time the Coalition were still trailing Labor on a two-party preferred basis, 48 to 52.
RedBridge co-director and former Liberal Party strategist Tony Barry said the polling showed Mr Pesutto was successfully appealing to his party’s base.
“To change the government you firstly need a mood for change sentiment and then the opposition has to reach minimum expectations in the assessment of the electorate,” he said.
“The danger for Labor is that Jacinta Allan isn’t defining herself as that change whilst John Pesutto is meeting those soft voter expectations.
“Importantly for the Liberals, these numbers also show Pesutto has rebuilt the party’s base in the eastern suburbs which is critical for them to spread their electoral map. In campaigns you test desire to win by discipline so the challenge for the Victorian Liberals is to stay unified and focused.”
The poll put the Greens vote at 12 per cent.
Herald Sun
