The Poll Bludger

Some data relating to the Coalition’s nuclear energy plans, along with a couple of other things, has helped filled the void in what loomed as a quiet week on the polling front:

• Nine Newspapers had a fresh Resolve Strategic poll focused entirely on the Coalition’s nuclear energy proposal, with no voting intention numbers provided. While this found 41% support for use of nuclear power with 37% opposed, it also found (following a lengthy explanation) 43% preferring “Labor’s plan to use 100% renewables (supported by gas for the next decade or two)” against 33% for “the Coalition’s plan to use nuclear power and some gas to support the renewables”. Nuclear was also the second least favoured energy source out of a list of eleven options, behind coal, with rooftop solar and hydro-electric power most favoured. The poll was conducted from Thursday, a day after Peter Dutton’s announcement, to Sunday, from a sample of 1003.

• Further data on nuclear energy, albeit not from the wake of Peter Dutton’s announcement, is provided by Freshwater Strategy, which has consistently asked respondents if they support or oppose seven designated energy sources in their polling going back to May last year. The last three monthly results have been the most positive for nuclear to date, the latest finding 37% in favour and 32% opposed, but like Resolve Strategic it finds nuclear consistently rated second lowest after coal. The Australian reported on Saturday that Freshwater Strategy conducted further polling for the Coalition focusing on the electorates proposed as sites for the plants, with 59% of those in Maranoa in favour and 33% opposed, 55% in Gippsland in favour with 40% opposed, 52% in O’Connor in favour with 38% opposed, and 51% in Grey in favour with 45% opposed, with tighter but still net favourable results in Calare, Flynn and Hunter.

• The weekly Roy Morgan poll has Labor leading 51-49, after a tied result last week, from primary votes of Labor 31.5% (up two), Coalition 37% (down one), Greens 13% (down half) and One Nation 6% (up one). The poll was conducted Monday to Sunday from a sample of 1696, thus partly before Peter Dutton’s announcement and part after, with its movements well within the boundaries of this pollster’s usual volatility.

• RedBridge Group has a small sample poll from the Melbourne seat of Macnamara, where Labor, Liberal and the Greens polled almost exactly equal shares of the vote in 2022, with Labor rather than the Greens winning after the latter very narrowly went under at the last exclusion. The good news for Labor is that the poll, which was conducted June 13 to 20, finds the Greens at 21% compared with their 29.7% at the election. The bad news is a two-party swing to the Liberals that reduces their margin from 12.2% at the election to 5% in the poll, with Labor’s primary vote down from 31.7% to 30% and the Liberals up from 29.0% to 36%. However, the poll’s sample of 401 puts the margin of error at around 5%.

• YouGov has published a finding from its last federal poll, conducted three weeks ago, suggesting no particular enthusiasm for capitalism over socialism, with 31% of respondents rating themselves between six and ten on a scale running from zero for socialism to ten for capitalism and 27% placing themselves from zero to four, with 42% for the “neutral” option of five. Socialism was favoured by fully 41% of the 18-to-34 age cohort, compared with 23% for capitalism. The poll was conducted May 31 to June 4 from a sample of 1500.

The site has been grappling with a few technical issues over the past day or so, which are hopefully now resolved. Perhaps this was the reason yesterday’s post following the count for the New South Wales state by-election for Northern Tablelands, which as expected was a lay-down misere for the Nationals, attracted a grand total of zero comments. Or perhaps not. Looking ahead, I believe we have a quiet week coming up on the polling front, unless The Australian treats us to quarterly Newspoll aggregates with state and demographic breakdowns, which are about due. Other than that, there is likely to be only the weekly Roy Morgan until the three-weekly YouGov poll, which past form suggests should be with us on Friday.

Much of this week’s preselection news relates directly or indirectly to the federal redistributions, which I discussed with Ben Raue of The Tally Room in a podcast you can access at the bottom of this post:

• The West Australian reports former state Nationals leader Mia Davies has confirmed approaches from “senior Nationals in the eastern states” to run in the proposed new seat of Bullwinkel, which partly corresponds with the state seat of Central Wheatbelt that she he has held since 2013. The idea has been talked up by party leader David Littleproud, and not ruled out by Davies. Davies led the Nationals from the defeat of the Barnett government in March 2017 and held the title of Opposition Leader after the party emerged from the 2021 election landslide with more seats than the Liberals, before stepping aside in January 2023 and announcing she would not contest the next election. She became a figure of controversy within the party when she called for Barnaby Joyce to resign in 2018 over sexual harassment allegations.

• Paul Sakkal of the Sydney Morning Herald reports “teal sources not permitted to speak on the record” say Nicolette Boele, who was gearing up for a second run as an independent in Bradfield, remains keen despite expectations Kylea Tink will seek to move there with the mooted abolition of her seat of North Sydney. Boele came within 4.2% of unseating Liberal member Paul Fletcher in 2022. Reports last week suggested former state Treasurer Matt Kean, who announced his impending departure from state parliament on Tuesday, might challenge Fletcher for Liberal preselection, but Sakkal reports party sources saying he will only seek the seat if Fletcher retires. Alexandra Smith of the Sydney Morning Herald reports any path to preselection for Kean in Bradfield would be complicated by the fact that the redistribution leaves his “Liberal branch enemies” within the redrawn seat.

• Aaron Patrick of the Financial Review reports Hunters Hill mayor Zac Miles has been lobbying for the NSW Liberal Party to reopen the preselection process for Bennelong, after the proposed new boundaries made it more favourable to the party by adding territory from abolished North Sydney. Such a move would come at the expense of Scott Yung, a tutoring business owner who came with 1.8% of deposing Chris Minns from his seat of Kogarah at the state election in 2019, who was preselected unopposed last October. A source is also quoted saying Gisele Kapterian, who had been preselected for North Sydney, also canvassed for support for Bennelong, but has decided not to proceed.

• Annika Smethurst of The Age reports on resistance in local Labor branches to a Socialist Left faction fait accompli that appears set to deliver preselection for the outer northern Melbourne seat of Calwell, which will be vacated with the retirement of Maria Vamvakinou, to Basem Abdo, a communications specialist born in Kuwait of Palestinian parents. Sensitivities are heightened by the fact that members only had preselection rights restored to them a year ago after a three-year takeover of the state branch by the national executive following branck-stacking scandals, with some reportedly threatening to back a “Dai Le-style campaign”.

• Blake Antrobus of news.com.au reports Queensland Liberal Senator Gerard Rennick has failed in his court bid against his preselection defeat last year, the court having ruled that the Liberal National Party was within its rights to set a 60-day time frame for lodging an appeal which Rennick failed to meet.

The fortnightly Essential Research poll goes against the recent grain in recording a four-point drop for the Coalition to 32%, with Labor down one to 31%, the Greens steady on 13% and One Nation up three to 8%, and the undecided component up two to 6%. The pollster’s 2PP+ measure, which has consistently been very close throughout the year, finds Labor moving into the lead for the first time since early April by holding steady at 48% while the Coalition falls two to 46%.

Further questions record 31% support and 36% opposition to Peter Dutton’s new position on carbon emissions, with respondents told this would breach a Paris climate agreement backed by 190 other countries. There is also a 52-48 split in favour of sticking to the 2030 target over an alternative that encapsulates Peter Dutton’s position thus: “Australia should abandon the 2030 target because it’s unachievable and hurting the economy and instead focus on the 2050 target”. However, there is a 63-37 split in favour of developing renewable as the means to the end of the 2050 target over sticking with fossil fuels and waiting until nuclear is developed in 15 to 20 years.

Questions on Israel and Gaza find 52% satisfied with the Australian government’s response, although twice as many think it too supportive of Israel than too harsh, at 32% and 16% respectively. There is a four-point drop in support for Israel’s action since April to 15%, with opposition up six to 38% and a two-point increase in support for a temporary ceasefire to 21%. A question on the government’s plan to make vapes available only through pharmacies by prescription finds 56% in favour and 22% opposed. The poll was conducted Wednesday to Sunday from a sample of 1160.

After two improved results for Labor, the weekly Roy Morgan poll records a sharp reversal, recording a tie on two-party preferred after Labor led 53.5-46.5 last week. On the primary vote, Labor is down a point to 29.5%, the Coalition is up three to 38%, the Greens are down two to 13.5% and One Nation is down half a point to 5%. The poll was conducted Monday to Sunday from a sample of 1724.

Nine Newspapers has also published further findings from the Resolve Strategic poll which put support for the government’s 43% carbon reduction target for 2030 as a stepping stone to net zero by 2050 at 33%, with a further 19% favouring a more ambitious approach. Only 17% supported Peter Dutton’s approach of abandoning the 2030 target, with a further 13% rejecting emissions targets altogether.

Two federal polls are out this evening, one from Resolve Strategic in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, one from Freshwater Strategy in the Financial Review, both of which report more-or-less monthly, and both of which are little changed on last time. However, Resolve Strategic has a headline-grabber with Labor’s primary vote falling to 28%, and both record movements on leadership ratings that are discouraging for Anthony Albanese and encouraging for Peter Dutton.

Resolve Strategic’s primary vote results are Labor 28%, down one; Coalition 36%, steady; Greens 14%, up two; One Nation 6%, down one; and a notably popular generic independent category 11%, down one. The pollster does not publish two-party preferred, and how one infers it based on preference flows from the last election depends a fair bit on how one deals with that 11%. My favoured method involves lumping independents and others into a single category, since Resolve Strategic’s independent total is double a 2022 election result that was dominated by teals and thus flowed to Labor fairly strongly over the Coalition, whereas it seems likely to me that much of the 11% is a none-of-the-above effect. On this basis, I get Labor ahead 50.7-49.3, a swing to the Coalition of 1.4%.

Leadership ratings are notable in having Peter Dutton leading Anthony Albanese 36-35, a distinct change from last month’s 40-32 that has apparently had little impact on voting intention. Albanese’s combined very good and rating is 37%, down two, and his combined very poor and poor rating is 51%, up two. Peter Dutton records his first net positive rating from this pollster, his very good plus good rating being 42%, up three, while very poor plus poor is 40%, down two. The poll was conducted Tuesday to Sunday from a sample of 1607.

Freshwater Strategy has both major parties unchanged on the primary vote, with Labor at 32% and the Coalition at 40%, with the Greens down a point to 13%, with two-party preferred at an unchanged 50-50. Anthony Albanese’s lead over Peter Dutton is slashed from 46-37 to 43-41, and he is down three on approval to 34% and up one on disapproval to 46%. Dutton is up four on approval to 35% and steady on 40% disapproval. The poll was conducted Friday to Sunday from a sample of 1060. Both polls have best-party-to-handle questions that record movement across the board to the Coalition: Resolve Strategic has the Coalition’s lead on economic management out from nine points to sixteen, and Freshwater Strategy has Labor’s lead on the environment and climate change in from thirteen to five.