Voters are turning away from Anthony Albanese‘s Voice proposal out of anger that he is appearing to spend more time promoting the referendum than trying to solve the cost of living crisis, new polling suggests.
The Prime Minister has repeatedly assured the public that the cost of living remains the number one priority for his government.
But Aussies aren’t seeing that sentiment reflected in his actions as he travels the nation advocating for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, research suggests.
Mr Albanese touched down today in Uluru for the final push of the campaign ahead of the referendum on October 14, telling a gathered crowd he remains ‘confident’ of a Yes vote victory.
He later broke down in tears after receiving a copy of the Uluru Statement from the Heart from an Aboriginal group who held his hands as they sang.
As his popularity takes yet another hit in voter satisfaction ratings, polling and modelling conducted by UK firm Focal Data found that the cost of living crisis is the second most pressing reason everyday Aussies are saying No to the Voice.
Mr Albanese touched down today in Uluru for the final push of the campaign ahead of the referendum on October 14, telling a gathered crowd he remains ‘confident’ of a Yes vote victory
The Prime Minister has repeatedly assured the public that the cost of living remains the number one priority for he and his government
The UK-based research group forecasts the nation will vote No by 61 per cent to the Yes campaign’s 39 per cent at Saturday’s referendum after polling 4,500 Australians and modelling the outcome in every seat.
Presented with eight possible reasons to vote No, 18 per cent of participants ranked ‘there are other things, like the cost of living, that need fixing first in Australia’ as their primary reason.
A further 19 per cent said it was their secondary reason to vote No, while another 19 per cent said it was their third reason – meaning 56 per cent of No voters in total consider it one of their top three reasons.
Households have experienced surges in prices on everything from groceries to petrol to electricity bills since the pandemic – and the PM’s popularity has taken a hit as a result.
Redbridge pollster Kosmos Samaras told Daily Mail Australia ‘a lot of the government’s bandwidth has been allocated to the Voice’ and that it had impacted the public’s perception of the way it has handled existential problems.
He later said: ‘Labor will need to quickly pivot to economic issues if it wants to secure the support of these voters in 2025.
‘It’s the economy – as always.
‘Support for the Voice started to drop sharply after the second interest rate rise this year. By July, it fell behind the No camp.’
The PM has enjoyed immense popularity
Presented with eight possible reasons to vote No, 18 per cent of participants ranked ‘there are other things, like the cost of living, that need fixing first in Australia’ as their primary reason
An Albanese government spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia Labor’s ‘number one priority is to help take the pressure off Australians doing it tough’.
‘Over recent weeks, 5.5 million Australians saw an increase to their income support payments and pensions. This is just one part of our $14.6 billion cost of living package.
‘The Opposition voted against cost-of-living relief for Australians, including attempting to stop people with chronic illness from accessing cheaper medicine and voting against our energy price relief package.
‘We are cleaning up the mess they left behind at the same time as we deliver targeted and responsible cost-of-living relief, without contributing to inflation.’
In the past 18 months since coming into power, the Albanese-led Labor government has increased rental assistance, boosted bulk billing and made cheaper child care more accessible to 1.2 million families.
Jobseeker and single parent payments have also increased.
Despite their best efforts, voter satisfaction for Mr Albanese plunged 12 percentage points over a six-month period, from a high of 57 per cent to 45 per cent now.
Between October 2009 and April 2010, Mr Rudd’s support fell from 63 per cent to 50 per cent, while dissatisfaction jumped from 28 per cent to 41 per cent
He’s still far more popular than Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who has a satisfaction rating of 37 points and has seen little improvement as voters turn away from the PM.
It’s a downward trend that has been compared to Kevin Rudd’s plunge in the polls in the latter half of his first term.
Between October 2009 and April 2010, Mr Rudd’s support fell from 63 per cent to 50 per cent, while dissatisfaction jumped from 28 per cent to 41 per cent.
At the time, he backflipped on his landmark climate change policy, while Australia was simultaneously struggling with an influx of illegal boat arrivals – which was an issue voters considered far more of a priority at the time.
Labor’s primary vote dropped to 34 per cent – its lowest level since the election and only two percentage points ahead of the Coalition, according to a Newspoll conducted by The Australian.
The ALP still holds a comfortable two-party preferred lead of 53 per cent to 47 per cent.