The tide has turned in biblical proportions in Victoria.
Latest polling commissioned by The Age, Victoria's left leaning daily newspaper of some standing shows Labor is on the canvas.
The Vic Labor primary vote has collapsed to just 28% in six months.
That is a fall of 11%
Debt and broken promises and being lied to are the reasons and the hopeless performance of Tim Pallas as treasurer, a union hack that is in a position that exceeds his ability and intellect.
With no goodwill remaining, with no money and bans all over the place that make it harder to survive Jacinta Allan and her rabble have nowhere to hide. Vic Labor has been exposed as a fraud.
See below published in The Age today.
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Labor’s popularity plunges as voters demand government tackle debt
ByAnnika SmethurstMay 22, 2024 — 5.00am
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Support for Labor has slumped to its lowest point in years under Jacinta Allan’s leadership and given the Coalition a comfortable primary vote lead, as voters punish the government for its ballooning debt and broken promises.
The exclusive findings by Resolve Strategic for
The Age show Labor’s primary vote dropped 5 percentage points in the past two months, putting support for the Allan government at just 28 per cent. That represents an 11 point decline in the six months since Allan became premier – and the government’s lowest primary vote since Resolve started tracking it three years ago.
New polling gives Opposition Leader John Pesutto more reason to smile than Premier Jacinta Allan.CREDIT:JOE ARMAO
The biggest drop in support for the state government during recent months came from voters unhappy with its broken election promises as well as the performance of Treasurer Tim Pallas, the poll indicates.
The swing away from the government boosted the primary vote of the Liberal Party and independent candidates, giving the Coalition a primary vote of 37 per cent, 9 points ahead of Labor.
That represents a sharp improvement for the opposition over the past 12 months, pushing the Coalition’s primary vote up 11 points since last June, when its
primary vote dropped to 26 per cent.While support for the Greens remains steady at 13 per cent, there has been a jump in the number of voters supporting independent candidates.
Resolve Strategic director Jim Reed said that while a uniform swing would not net a majority for either party, the rising support for minor parties and independents meant the government would still be competitive after preferences.
“We can tell from the flow of votes from Labor to third options and respondent comments that this is a protest vote,” Reed said.
“People are just not happy with a tired incumbent, their lack of progress on tackling living costs and a shocker of a budget.
“The problem for the opposition right now is that people are unhappy with Labor, but aren’t yet crossing over to their side of the street. They need to demonstrate they are ready to govern, can get the basics right and improve people’s lives.”
Allan has maintained her personal lead over Opposition Leader John Pesutto, ahead by 31 to 26 per cent as preferred premier, but the gap has narrowed to its tightest margin this parliamentary term.
The Resolve Political Monitor, which surveyed 1105 eligible Victorian voters with a margin of error of 2.9 per cent, also found more than 50 per cent of voters believe Labor broke its election promises in its budget by
delaying more than 100 projects. That included delaying the Airport Rail Link, and walking away from a pledge to build a new Royal Melbourne Hospital and Royal Women’s Hospital alongside the new Metro Tunnel’s Arden Station.
With
net debt forecast to rise from $156.2 billion by the end of the next financial year to $187.8 billion by June 2028, about one-third of voters backed the government’s decision to delay services and infrastructure projects given the financial realities.
But the majority of voters – 67 per cent – want the government to do more to reduce debt, with the vast majority favouring spending cuts instead of new taxes.
Monash University emeritus professor of politics Paul Strangio said the result suggested a fourth victory for Labor in 2026 might be “a bridge too far”, as voters fail to warm to Allan and grow increasingly concerned about the size of government debt.
“Victoria’s political history over the past four decades – the era of Labor dominance – indicates that the upper limit for Labor is three consecutive election victories. This poll and the polling trend suggests that this pattern may be repeating,” he said.
“The electorate has had eight months to get a sight on Jacinta Allan’s leadership of the state, and it appears they are underwhelmed by what they see. Indeed, there has been a steady and now sharp decline in the Labor government’s standing in the polls since she became premier last September.
“Undoubtedly, there is growing voter trepidation about the size of the debt and this concern is a major thing undermining confidence in the Labor government.”
The Resolve Political Monitor also found 38 per cent of voters rated Tim Pallas’ performance as treasurer as poor, compared with 26 per cent who think he has performed well in the role he has held since 2014.
As part of its research, Resolve Strategic asks respondents to explain why they support either party, and their comments point towards a strong “it’s time” factor, not necessarily a strong desire to elect the Coalition.
“Dan Andrews killed this state, and we need to get rid of the people he left behind him,” one respondent said.
“The crime and drug use is so out of hand, maybe it’s time for a different leader. A stronger one,” another voter responded.
The survey, conducted over a four-day period in mid-April and mid-May, also found support for the Nationals was unchanged this year and sat at 3 per cent.
