The Lowy Institute has published its latest annual survey on public attitudes towards foreign affairs, broadly defined. It finds Australians trust their World War II enemies (89% positive for Japan, 83% for Germany) rather a lot more than the allies (31% for the United States, 28% for China and 11% for Russia) to “act responsibly in the world”, excepting in the latter case the United Kingdom (81%). The result for the US is five points down on last year, which was already 15 points below its previous nadir in the last year of the first Trump administration. However, 73% continue to rate the US alliance as very or fairly important, down seven on last year. The result for China marks a recovery from 12% in 2022, but remains far below the 60% it was recording two decades ago. Australians have also gone back to seeing China as more of an economic partner (61%, up from a low of 33% in 2022) than a security threat (36%, down from 63%).
The view that cultural diversity is positive has fallen 20 points over two years to 73%, and a record 55% say Australia has too many immigrants, up two from last year, with “about right” down nine to 29%. Fifty-three per cent report feeling “unsafe in the world”, the first time in the history of a series going back to 2005 this has exceeded 50%. Thirty-nine per cent favour Australia getting a nuclear weapon of one kind or another, up three since the question was last posed in 2022. The survey was conducted from March 2 to 15 by the Social Research Centre, with a sample of 2013.
Separately, an international survey by Pew Research finds 18% of Australians have confidence in Donald Trump to do the right thing in world affairs, with 82% expressing no confidence. Similar results were recorded in western Europe and south-east Asia, though Britons were a little less unfavourably disposed. Thirty-seven per cent viewed the US as a very or somewhat reliable partner, compared with 79% in 2022.
Just noticed Hanson’s net approval has suffered a 10 point drop according to that poll. Interesting.
I think hubris is starting to get to her with all the ridiculous policy suggestions she has been spouting lately. Or maybe people are finally actually listening to what she’s saying.
Shorten had poor personal ratings while Labor was ahead in the polls. He was an anchor at election time.
Albo’s now doing similarly in the personal ratings. Just saying.
nadia:
Sunday, June 28, 2026 at 6:08 pm
At this rate, Hastie might make his move after the winter break. I think Taylor’s cactus, particularly following his comment on multiculturalism.
Rex: I too think Hason’s peaked.
Even by Hanson’s standards, that was an astonishingly stupid thing for her to say, especially during a time of rising cost of living.
Would have turned off aspiring mothers and fathers alike.
Wasn’t Hanson the preferred PM in the last Redbridge poll? How can she have lost 2 points and be 10 points behind Albanese?
Rex:
Shorten’s downfall had a lot more to do with policy and messenging blunders made by himself and Bowen during the lead-up to the 2019 campaign than his approval ratings, IMO.
Which isn’t to say Albo’s own personal ratings arn’t cause for concern – they are – but unpopular leaders can and do win elections.
The results of the previous RedBridge poll are here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FMbzUa4j4reMmnHDm6EH3NPOzx7dCPqw/view
ALP too strong, sorry dumbclucks
I’d caution anyone getting too excited right now to recall the “narrowing” of late-2012 / early-2013.
I got rubbished on here for 6 yrs for saying Shorten was unelectable.
I was right.
Albo is now being found out. Labor devotees shouldn’t make the same mistake.
It’s Newspoll night tonight, yeah?
Shorten was also Opposition Leader, not Prime Minister. It’s much easier to exploit voter doubts and create fear about someone who is not PM than somebody who is because you can exploit people’s imaginations more.
That said, don’t pop the champagne corks just because one poll shows a slight movement back. We are in uncertain times. Be optimistic by all means and don’t panic, but don’t start already declaring Labor the winners of the next election.
Ashasays:
Which isn’t to say Albo’s own personal ratings arn ‘t cause for concern – they are – but unpopular leaders can and do win elections.
____________
I wouldn’t blame Albo for going around again. Particularly as Chalmers’ ratings are not any better.
But there’s nothing like going out on top and on your own terms. Who was the last PM that did that?
Maybe Labor voters waking up to themselves. Overall a material shift from right to left when you take the Greens into account.
@Rex Douglas
Um, Albo was elected twice though? That’s not really what “unelectable” means.
And I recall you saying that even if we ended up under a far-right dictatorship under Queen Pauline for 20 years you’d still be mainly complaining about Labor.
– news.com
Hume is more superficial than Taylor, and that’s saying something.
Rex Douglassays:
I got rubbished on here for 6 yrs for saying Shorten was unelectable.
I was right.
________________
Hold my beer keg.
It turns out there are some Australian’s who aren’t bored by, or find the genocide in Palestine too far away to care for in any way:
https://youtube.com/shorts/M0QBPJSBdwY?si=5Cq4GBfZRZsRHH7X
Mavis
Extraordinary comments by Hume.
Rex:
Shorten wasn’t unelectable. Nobody is. This country put Tony fucking Abbott into the Lodge, for Christ’s sake.
Shorten saw off two PMs and came very close to turfing the Coalition into opposition in a single term. He spent lengthy sections of his six years as opposition leader well ahead in the polls, causing multiple implosions within the governments’ ranks in response. He deserves some credit for that, regardless of what you may think of the man.
Yep, he (and others in his team, too… a party leader is not a dictator, after all) fucked up during the 2019 election and completely underestimated Morrison, no doubt about that, but he could well have become PM had the campaign been run differently, no matter his personal popularity.
See also: Peter Dutton.
The Liberals need to make the change now to Hastie.
Very interesting story about the ultra high speed energy grid built by China and the impact on the renewable energy transition.
It highlights the advantage of one central point of control v’s the multi state US and depth of Chinese engineering capability.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECIuk25ZeYc
Kos Samaras has commented on his own poll on facebook. I’ll be waiting to see if other polls back this up.
https://www.facebook.com/kosmos.samaras/posts/pfbid036kZ49nUohJ6mUs9phyv2PzLvdePxVeCuSKUFxXaD6jrHzr1h9xe2d8FAv9N1AsExl
Turns out telling women and workers to get stuffed is bad politics. Out latest RedBridge Accent poll.
Who could have seen this coming.
Stand at the National Press Club. Tell the country that childcare funding is “out of control” and needs an “investigation.” Suggest businesses shouldn’t have to pay women who have the temerity to take maternity leave. Wave you finger at the wage and salary earners who keep this economy upright and call them lazy. Tell diverse Australians that they don’t belong.
Hanson’s net approval has fallen ten points to minus 10 in a single cycle. Her primary is down two to 29. On a head to head against Labor, the One Nation vote now splits 56 to 44 in favour of Labor. Five points, gone.
This is the rented One Nation voted I have written about. Their founding base is around 15%, whilst the remainder is a borrowed cohort. The moment you hand them a manifesto full of subtraction, threats, they remember they have children in childcare and a wage that depends on the laws One Nation has now openly stated, at the National Press Club need to be gone.
Freo looking the goods for the cup. I’d like to see it.
Rex Douglassays:
Sunday, June 28, 2026 at 6:40 pm
Freo looking the goods for the cup. I’d like to see it.
___________
Me too.
Rex Douglas says:
Sunday, June 28, 2026 at 6:06 pm
Greens have almost got the Coalition…
===========
Rex, I think the Greens overtook the coalition on last Monday’s Morgan poll, that is if you subtract the 2.5% Nats vote.
It’s interesting – the Libs appear to be in freefall. They also pulled 18% on a Demos Poll last week, so this poll sort of backs up that figure.
I actually don’t know if there is any point in Hastie replacing Taylor (not that you suggested this).
I think the Libs may be finished. Their former Tory base appears to have moved to One Nation – as shown in poll after poll.
Albo is being found out… wow, the recent polls must be awful!
I will go back one page.
Primary
Labor Plus 2
Greens Plus 2
Orange Racist Minus 2
Noalition Minus 2
2PP
Labor Plus 3 vs Noalition
Labor Plus 5 vs Orange Racist
PPM:
Albo 33, Plus 2
Angus 11, Minus 2
Orange Racist 23, Minus 2
That doesn’t sound like being found out at all.
Kos was rattled last week he went quiet, now his trying to push a narrative when this poll has ON polling at 29%, only 1% behind Labor.
I was just texted the Redbridge stuff which unsurprisingly got here even faster anyway.
Good news. Want to see it replicated elsewhere, but would be a very positive sign that despite the right’s foreign-sourced social media spamfest in favour of ON, the truth about their agenda has been seeping through.
Nath:
Regardless of his personal reasons for doing so, I think if Albo were to step down now – just over a year into his second term after winning a historic majority and subsequently floundering in the polls – the prevailing narrative would be that he was pushed rather than going out on his own terms.
“Turns out telling women and workers to get stuffed is bad politics. Out latest RedBridge Accent poll.
Who could have seen this coming.”
==========
Well credit to NewyBoy too, who said that this is the issue which needs to be re-iterated week after week.
Voters have probably had a bit of a think about the Hanson comments at the NPC.
She got a slight boost post the NPC meeting, but has def taken a hit on this Redbridge-Accent poll.
There is another issue which may also have been taken into account by women, and that is abortion.
The media has avoided the “a” word over the past 10 days, but voters may have taken this into account too.
Hopefully Newspoll in a couple of hours, and we’ll see if these figures are replicated.
Kos’ Facebook comments build on this article from earlier in the week:
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2026/06/hansons-politics-of-subtraction-offers-her-own-voters-less/
There is also this spirited defence of multiculturalism:
https://redbridgeintel.substack.com/p/multiculturalism-didnt-fail-it-poured
Asha says:
Sunday, June 28, 2026 at 6:27 pm
It’s Newspoll night tonight, yeah?
=======
Hopefully. The 3-monthly aggregates are also due, so we might get them instead.
But yep, hopefully the standard 3-weekly Newspoll comes first!
There’s not much point seperating the Liberals and the Nationals when talking about the Coalition’s general level of support in the community.
As far as most people are concerned, they are little more than seperate factions of the same party – they rarely compete in the same seats, and you get the same PM, government, and policies regardless of which one you vote for.
But, yeah, it is pretty wild to see the Coalition just a few points ahead of the Greens! What a time to be alive.
Amanda Vanstone interviewed by David Speers.
She states that Pauline doesn’t give a stuff about anyone but herself. Liking Vanstone’s clear and concise assessment
https://youtu.be/g8KqcodkR1c?si=BlDpXG7BjGB1Knh6
If this is indeed their peak (and I think that’s a damn big “if” right now), it will be interesting to see where much of the One Nation vote goes. Back to the Coalition? Labor? Some new far right party? Sprayed among various minor parties and independents.
Exactly the point everyone should be making day in day out.
——
Aussie icon Paul Hogan knifes Hanson’s monoculture stupidity.
“She’s living in the past, obviously”
“How can it be a monoculture? We’re all migrants, except the Aboriginals, who as far as we know have been
for 60,000 years.” #auspol
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/she-s-a-pelican-paul-hogan-says-no-thanks-to-hanson-s-praise-20260628-p60ant or https://archive.is/xkWWw
Landlord of the Year says:
Sunday, June 28, 2026 at 6:43 pm
Kos was rattled last week he went quiet, now his trying to push a narrative when this poll has ON polling at 29%, only 1% behind Labor.
==========
I think Kos went quiet because he’s deactivated his twitter account.
You can find his current stuff here.
Link: https://redbridgeintel.substack.com/
I sort of agree with you though, he’s a bit of a flip-flopper. A couple of months ago he was talking about the “goats cheese circle”, and then he was rabbiting on about women & tradies flocking to One Nation (red Labor voters), and now he’s a bit quiet.
It is fascinating. It is the same combo that has generated maybe 60 (80?) million excess dwellings and a massively disproportionate contribution to the Anthropocene Extinction Event.
Perhaps one of the greatest things that Tony Abbott gave to Australia is that he inoculated us against cynical right-wing bullshit.
Yeah, he was pretty much unstoppable during the Obama years under the Rudd-Gillard governments, but then he came to power and fucked it up big time.
The “Sir Prince Philip” crap destroyed Campbell Newman in January 2015, he almost lost to an empty chair a month later, then Bronwyn Bishop’s Helicopter Adventures landed the killing blow in July.
Unless Albo screws up in the next few months (unlikely, Victorian Labor would be very annoyed if he had a scandal that sinks their state government like Abbott did for the Queensland LNP), only way is down for One Nation and the Coalition as they fight each other.
So, all MOE except for Hanson’s 10 point netsat dip.
Terrible LNP vote. I am still amazed there hasn’t been any defections among the sitting LNP members yet.
Susssan Ley must glad to be out of there.
Nadia
I saw Kos changed his X account to private.
I could never quite figure out why Taylor was in such as hurry to shaft Ley. There was plenty of time. It was not as if he was ready with a comprehensive alternative set of policies.
If Redbridge’s figures are repeated in tonight’s Newspoll then it’s come on down Andrew Hastie. He’ll be LOTO by the other side of the winter break.
Asha @ #436 Sunday, June 28th, 2026 – 6:53 pm
Back to the Coalition. They just need a unifying leader which is why I’m keen for Hastie to call for a spill.
Boerwar @ #445 Sunday, June 28th, 2026 – 7:00 pm
It’s almost as if he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed.
Rex
So you think Albanese is unelectable?
Wat Tyler posted
I’m prepared to call them the winners right now. Who is going to beat them? Pauline Hanson will never be Prime Minister. The Liberals are a joke and the Nationals are not much better. Sure, they’ll lose a few seats but nowhere near enough to lose government.