Newspoll: 52-48 to Coalition

Little change on three weeks ago in the latest Newspoll, although the Coalition’s headline lead narrows slightly.

Courtesy of The Australian, the latest Newspoll has the Coalition’s two-party lead down to 52-48 from 53-47 three weeks ago, from primary votes of Coalition 43% (down one), Labor 33% (doen one), Greens 11% (up one) and One Nation 4% (steady). Scott Morrison is steady at 68% approval and up two on disapproval to 29%, while Anthony Albanese is respectively steady at 41% and down two to 38%. Morrison’s lead as prime minister has nonetheless widened very slightly, from 59-26 to 60-25. The poll was conducted Wednesday to Saturday from a sample of 1509.

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.

698 comments on “Newspoll: 52-48 to Coalition”

Comments Page 1 of 14
1 2 14
  1. michael @ #2654 Sunday, August 9th, 2020 – 9:30 pm

    52-48 , Dan is doing a brilliant job

    How you can make that self-serving conclusion from those figures, when I have posted the actuality that Labor have increased one on the 2PP, is beyond me.

    #whichmichael/Michaelistherealnath?

  2. Michael
    Stupid comment as usual. Federal Newspoll bears no relation to state politics.The punters are not that stupid.

  3. I think the various responses to the pandemic illustrate just how hard it is for our species to respond to the many challenges that we’re presented with. In a few very small and isolated communities – like NZ and some of the Australian States – we’ve been able to make the very few sacrifices required to eliminate a virus. This is not a complicated or difficult thing analyse and design, and requires only minimal time and action commitments from the relevant populations. And yet these seem to be impossible to aim for in larger, more complex, more inter-linked and less isolated populations.

    If we cannot handle a pandemic, how are we going to respond to the demands of climate change?

    I don’t think we’re equipped for it. We have known for 15o years that the climate will be adversely affected by our use of fossil fuels. And yet we have been unable to muster the initiative to really do anything substantial and timely to prevent it. Maybe this relates to the time lags involved. But it also exemplifies our capacity for avoidance and procrastination. These are ‘free-riding’ behaviours…behaviours that in other circumstances serve humans very well. They encourage us to conserve our energy and other resources, to adopt risk-minimising/self-saving actions. But these behaviours are having perverse outcomeswith respect to both covid and climate change.

    We are in very serious trouble because we are now writing our own demise. And even though we know it, we cannot alter it.

  4. The Anti-Labor parties still attracting 2/3 primary votes. Nothing has changed in the last fortnight. There is an institutionalised Labor-hostile majority that will keep the LNP in power for ever and a day.

  5. Shannon Deery
    @s_deery

    For all following the Victorian COVID numbers closely: from tomorrow the daily increase and new death count will be tweeted by
    @VicGovDHHS
    each morning. Worth a follow if you want the offical number first. Will no longer have to wait for Premier’s presser. #springst #auspol

  6. steve davis says:
    Sunday, August 9, 2020 at 9:42 pm
    If Smoko was doing that good a job he would be as far ahead TPP as Ardern in NZ.

    Morrison aimed low – for suppression – and has delivered even less. The virus has not been suppressed in Australia. If the current policies are pursued it will remain in circulation indefinitely. If Morrison had set out to eliminate the virus – to emulate NZ – we would be now be covid-free. Instead we have to expect serial lockdowns/lockouts and the dislocation these cause. Morrison has failed. The cause of his failure is essentially his ideological blindness.

  7. Briefly/NonSequitur,

    That last post at 9:44pm is both perceptive and poignant. As a species, we really are in trouble.

  8. NonSequitur @ #15 Sunday, August 9th, 2020 – 9:46 pm

    The Anti-Labor parties still attracting 2/3 primary votes. Nothing has changed in the last fortnight. There is an institutionalised Labor-hostile majority that will keep the LNP in power for ever and a day.

    Labor has to concede that its days of governing outright are over.

    Albanese is too old school to do that though.

  9. Rex Douglas says:
    Sunday, August 9, 2020 at 9:44 pm
    Labor entrenched on a low 30s primary.

    They have to look for a coalition partner, surely…?

    If Labor were to fall for that mirage, the combined Labor/Green PV would fall into the low 20s/high teens. There is no chance whatsoever that such a combination could ever defeat the LNP.

  10. Greyhounds are still running in Victoria as they were in NSW back in March and April.

    Craziest fucking bullshit of all. May as well have something alive as the lure given the moral bankruptcy of it all.

  11. Now this is something….

    ‘Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick will quit the party – a rebranding of the Nick Xenophon Team – and go it alone in a bid to retain his spot in the Australian Parliament at the next election.

    Senator Patrick has described the decision as more of a “marketing” move than a split with fellow Centre Alliance MPs Senator Stirling Griff and Member for Mayo Rebekha Sharkie.

    But Senator Griff said Senator Patrick had been “running his own race for some time”.

    Senator Patrick, who will run as an independent, said Centre Alliance was facing an uphill battle to get a single seat in the next Senate, let alone two, which would be a disaster for South Australia.

    https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/sa-senator-rex-patrick-will-quit-centre-alliance-and-run-as-an-independent/news-story/87671d5633898ea9a7f46ce8b4367828

  12. Rex Douglas says:
    Sunday, August 9, 2020 at 9:52 pm
    NonSequitur @ #15 Sunday, August 9th, 2020 – 9:46 pm

    The Anti-Labor parties still attracting 2/3 primary votes. Nothing has changed in the last fortnight. There is an institutionalised Labor-hostile majority that will keep the LNP in power for ever and a day.
    Labor has to concede that its days of governing outright are over.

    Albanese is too old school to do that though.

    Labor govern alone or not at all. It looks like not at all. Coalition with the Greens would destroy Labor entirely.

  13. [‘Morrison’s lead as prime minister has nonetheless widened very slightly, from 59-26 to 60-25’]

    That really should be a worry for Albanese, Labor. I’m sure they’re others who excel?

  14. Non
    Should Labor consider joining the Greens for that 10% extra of the voters? I know that would be extremely unpopular on PB.

  15. The OTIS group would never agree to a coalition with the Green.

    SFF should re-brand themselves as the Regional Australia Party and put the Nats out of business. The current Labor party would have more in common with them.

  16. I’m surprised the preferred PM margin is merely 65/29. Morrison has been present in the news day in day out. He gives every appearance of actually being the PM (even if he’s fudging the whole thing). Albo is the Opposition leader that cannot oppose too much or too often or too conspicuously. So Morrison is coasting. It’s early days for him. Unless he deals with covid ‘once and for all’, the economy will never get back on track.

  17. The wowsers are out and about…

    Legal experts have raised concern about reports of a personal relationship between Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith and his defamation lawyer, saying it could constitute conduct that is unprofessional.

    Lynda Crowley-Cyr, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Southern Queensland, said lawyers should generally avoid having any kind of personal relationship with their client while in a lawyer-client relationship.

    She said the obligation to remain professionally independent and impartial was on the lawyer, not the client.

    “A friendship could potentially jeopardise the professional relationship. Lawyers’ first obligation is to the court,” she said.

    “Relationships with clients, whether romantic or platonic friendships, risk clouding the lawyer’s obligations to remain impartial and independent.”

    Associate Professor Crowley-Cyr said in this case Mr Roberts-Smith may have access to classified information as he was also the subject of an investigation by the Defence Inspector-General, but the relationship with his lawyer “does not mean he will divulge sensitive information to her”.

    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/legal-experts-raise-concern-about-ben-roberts-smith-s-personal-relationship-with-lawyer-20200808-p55jv8.html

    One would have thought that parties to the defamation case might stop short of “He might be guilty of betraying national secrets, but nah, he’s probably not” stories, too.

    What two grown adults holding hands, sleeping together, or even getting it sticky – or not – has to do with the SMH fighting a defamation case, besides a nasty misuse of their privileged bully pulpit to further slag-off their legal adversary, baffles me.

    According to Professor Crowley-Cyr, even being friends with a client is out of bounds. I wonder whether she has any friends herself with such a citric attitude. And I wonder why she feels it necessary to stick her bib into this matter, one that appears to be none of her damned business.

  18. Non

    Should Labor consider joining the Greens for that 10% extra of the voters? I know that would be extremely unpopular on PB.

    I’ve put it up for discussion many times, but you’re right, you tend to get shouted down, Briefly being one of the loudest in this department.

  19. steve davis says:
    Sunday, August 9, 2020 at 10:00 pm
    Non
    Should Labor consider joining the Greens for that 10% extra of the voters? I know that would be extremely unpopular on PB.

    The Greens run decoy policies. If Labor were to move towards the Greens on policy, they will simply move further away. Politics relies on difference – on adversarial contests. So there is no reason for Labor to move towards the Greens. This would just invite ridicule and would in any case fail.

    As for ‘joining’ the Greens, there’s no barrier to individuals moving between the Parties. But the Greens will never dissolve themselves and apply to join Labor. And likewise, why would Labor want to join a part that is hostile to working people?

    Such a Union would destroy both parties. It will not happen. Consequently the LNP will continue to win federal elections.

  20. Griff says:
    Sunday, August 9, 2020 at 9:52 pm
    Briefly/NonSequitur,

    That last post at 9:44pm is both perceptive and poignant. As a species, we really are in trouble.

    Cheers, Griff.

  21. The main factor from this poll, has been the main factor since the election, is the low PV for Labor. They won’t win an election from the low 30’s and likely don’t deserve to.

    Other than that there is not a lot to say about the poll which is pretty well where things were three weeks ago.

  22. Davidwh @ #37 Sunday, August 9th, 2020 – 10:16 pm

    The main factor from this poll, has been the main factor since the election, is the low PV for Labor. They won’t win an election from the low 30’s and likely don’t deserve to.

    You can’t win an election if you don’t contest it.

    Labor clearly hasn’t yet learnt that lesson 🙁

  23. Davidwh….The nationwide polling for Labor conceals the very poor support in QLD and WA and the contrary strong support in Victoria.

    Labor cannot win unless it can win seats in QLD or there is a complete collapse of support for the Liberals in WA. Neither of these appear likely at present. The Liberals might lose seats in WA….but even then that would not be enough to deliver a Labor majority. Labor have 68 seats. They need to win 76.

  24. BB, you are misfiring.

    A lawyer representing a client whose credit is an issue in the case must not have an intimate relationship with the client.

    The reason for this is that the system of justice we have (adversarial) puts the legal representative in an important conflict of interest between being an officer of the court (which involves only taking steps and making submissions that are ethically open) and representing the interests of the client (winning the case) as well as possible.

    A simple example. You can defend a person you know is a murderer because they told you. But you cannot call the murderer to give evidence to say they are not guilty.

    So when the lawyer is in a personal relationship with the client the trust the court must have in the lawyer for our system of justice to work is broken.

    Problem easily fixed if client gets a new lawyer and then the client and the old lawyer can bonk to their hearts content. I apologise if this is a bit wowser is of me.

  25. steve davis @ #41 Sunday, August 9th, 2020 – 10:23 pm

    So what is it going to take for the labor PV to rise significantly from 33%?

    Morrison continuing to follow in Howard’s footsteps.

    Remember when ‘The End of the World’ brigade despaired that Labor would be out of power federally for a generation after the Latham Labor defeat of 2004? Well, they weren’t.

  26. The Anti-Labor parties ran very much better campaigns than Labor in 2019. They won. The data suggests the result was determined by the campaigns and not by the many months of phoney contests that preceded the campaign period. In the seats where I helped campaign – all in the Northern suburbs of Perth – the anti-Labor campaigns were very effective. They smashed it. Labor have a very long way to go to revive their chances in WA. Maybe the success of the State Government will help in that respect.

    If covid is still widespread by the end of next year that would affect the campaigning methods. That might also help the Liberals, who will have a much larger budget for media and mail-out spending.

  27. The level of support in QLD is indeed a source of sadness for anyone who wants to see Labor win elections. There is nothing – not one single thing – that suggests Labor support has revived in QLD.

    The real action in politics at the moment is in Victoria. This is a threat to Labor.

  28. I really do hope that Dan Andrews’ government’s actions get a handle on COVID-19 again. It might shut up dickheads like this, though I doubt it:


    Sleeping Giants Oz
    @slpng_giants_oz

    WOW
    @ScottMorrisonMP
    sounds like self harm is just a passing political insult for Senator James McGrath appearing on Paul Murray on Sky News:

    I dont care how Daniel Andrews is feeling quite frankly

    “He can take a long walk off a short plank” for all I care.

    #Auspol

Comments Page 1 of 14
1 2 14

Leave a Reply

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