ReachTEL: 51-49 to Labor in Western Australia

Better news on the polling front for Colin Barnett, but Labor retains the lead.

Today’s Weekend West has a ReachTEL of state voting intention in Western Australia which has Labor with a 51-49 lead, from primary votes of Liberal 38.2%, Nationals 5.4%, Labor 36.5% and Greens 7.7%. This is a substantial improvement for the Liberals on the last such poll in March, which had Labor leading 56-44. Further questions find Mark McGowan favoured over Colin Barnett as preferred premier by 54.1-45.9, and Colin Barnett favoured as Liberal leader by 44.8%, compared with 30.6% for Liza Harvey, 11.3% for Mike Nahan, 7.8% for Joe Francis and 5.5% for Dean Nalder. The automated phone poll was conducted Thursday from a sample of 1724.

UPDATE: The West has rolled out further results from the poll in its Monday and Tuesday editions. The poll found 44.9% in favour of the construction of both stages of the Perth Freight Link road project – to which Colin Barnett has only committed to the first stage, while Dean Nalder is aggrieved that he will not do so for both – versus 31.1% opposed, although I suspect there is too much nuance involved in this issue for the results to be of much use. This has now been followed by a finding that 45.4% support Nationals leader Brendon Grylls’ plan to hike Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton’s mining royalties payments from 25 cents a tonne to $5, with 31.5% opposed.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

14 comments on “ReachTEL: 51-49 to Labor in Western Australia”

  5. I was called yesterday by Reachtel who were doing an Ellenbrook specific poll.

    I was asked:
    – Liberal, Labor, other
    – Most important issue from education, health, public transport or a couple of others
    – Ellenbrook public transport, do I want train, bus or neither.

  8. Nice to see the usual suspects rallying around Barnett The West, 6PR, Ch7 ,its a joke I hope he loses badly just to see the expressions on Stokes and various Liberal radio jocks in Perth will be entertaining to say the least
    Stokes must live in fear of Labor Govts I don’t think the west has ever wanted one

  9. It seemed like there was a difference of opinion on the spill motion in what I heard today.
    Liza Harvey seemed to be saying there shouldn’t be one, Peter Collier seemed to be saying it should be brought on to deal with the issue.
    So at this stage it’s not even clear a spill motion will get passed, let alone there be a vote between Barnett and Nalder.
    It would be interesting if the pro-Barnett members split on the question of the spill motion.

  11. Reachtel polled on Sunday, the questions made me think it was labor or union funded polling. I don’t think the libs would be asking the north eastern suburbs how much they like trains.

  13. Surely they can’t make someone with 5.5% public support as leader Premier. So is this a stalking-horse job by Nalder or just a wrecking ball? Strange challenge.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *