Opposition Leader Angus Taylor’s approval rating has dived, according to the latest Essential Poll. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Australians don’t much care for how Labor is handling the economy at the moment, but they prefer the government to anything else on offer, according to the latest opinion polling.
The Essential Poll, commissioned by The Guardian, shows support for both the Coalition and One Nation has dipped, while Opposition Leader Angus Taylor’s approval rating is in freefall.
The poll was undertaken last week of 1060 demographically weighted voters and found One Nation’s recent meteoric rise seems to be over.
The party attracted a 25 per cent primary vote, which is down 1 point from June’s poll, slipping away from a high of 28 per cent it rated in May in the Essential survey.
The Coalition dropped another point from the last poll to 22 per cent, while Labor’s primary vote was up 1 point to 31 per cent.
But it’s Mr Taylor’s approval rating that is ringing alarm bells across the Coalition.
The Opposition Leader’s performance approval dropped 3 points from last month’s poll to 33 per cent and his disapproval rate shot up by 7 points to 44 per cent, resulting in a net approval of minus 11.
It dropped 13 points among voters aged 18 to 34 and 20 points among those aged 35 to 54.
His approval with men plummeted 16 points, whereas it only dropped 4 points among women.
Anthony Albanese’s approval rating isn’t great either, with 38 per cent approving of his performance as Prime Minister and 52 per cent disapproving.
That gives the PM a net approval rating of minus 14, up 1 from last month but continuing a 4-month streak of more than half of voters disapproving of his performance.
Labor has been marked down over its handling of inflation and the cost of living crisis, with a whopping 64 per cent of the pollster’s respondents rating its performance in that area as poor.
Only 16 per cent rated it as good.
Voters are also unhappy about the government’s embrace of artificial intelligence.
Only 28 per cent of respondents said they would support a new data centre being built in their area, while 37 per cent were against the idea.
A whopping 61 per cent of voters had concerns over AI’s demand for energy, and the impact that would have on power prices, while 44 per cent mentioned concerns for water supply.
Thirty-nine per cent of respondents said they were worried about AI in general, and another 41 per cent had concerns over environmental and noise pollution from AI data centres.
Men were split equally over AI, with 34 per cent supporting it and 34 per cent opposing, while more women disapproved of the new technology than approved of it, at 22 per cent and 39 per cent respectively.
Close to 80 per cent of respondents rated cost of living and inflation as one of the most important issues for them, followed by Medicare and health at 50 per cent, crime 42 per cent, and immigration 35 per cent.
In a recent landmark speech on the Federal Government’s approach to AI, Mr Albanese promised a national set of standards under one framework to ensure data centres don’t soak up energy supplies or impact power prices, or steal the work of local authors and creatives.
But the government is pushing ahead with positioning Australia as an attractive location for AI tech giants to invest.
The Prime Minister is establishing the Office of AI within his own department to coordinate a whole-of-government approach to the technology.
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Region Canberra.
