(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – About one third of people in Australia say the government led by Kevin Rudd underperformed in 2009, according to a poll by Essential Research. 31 per cent of respondents say the prime minister’s administration did somewhat worse or much worse than expected last year.
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – About one third of people in Australia say the government led by Kevin Rudd underperformed in 2009, according to a poll by Essential Research. 31 per cent of respondents say the prime minister’s administration did somewhat worse or much worse than expected last year.
Conversely, 24 per cent of respondents say the performance of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) government exceeded their expectations in 2009, and 36 per cent say its actions were in line with what they anticipated.
Australia held a federal election in November 2007. Final results gave the ALP 85 seats in the 150-member House of Representatives. ALP leader Rudd was officially sworn in as prime minister in December, bringing an end to the 11-year tenure of Liberal leader John Howard as head of Australia’s government.
Howard failed to retain his seat in the Bennelong constituency and stepped down as Liberal leader. Since their electoral defeat in 2007, the Liberals have had three different leaders: former defence minister Brendan Nelson, former environment minister Malcolm Turnbull, and former health minister Abbott, who defeated Turnbull in an internal leadership ballot by just one vote on Dec. 1.
On Jan. 1, Rudd reflected on his actions in 2009 regarding the global financial crisis, saying, "The government took early and decisive action to cushion Australia from the worst impacts of this global meltdown. Across the nation, the building of infrastructure projects that will continue to support jobs and small businesses, are taking shape."
Polling Data
Thinking about the performance of the Rudd Labor Government over 2009, has it been…
|
|
2009 |
2008 |
|
Much better than expected |
7% |
10% |
|
Somewhat better than expected |
17% |
22% |
|
About what expected |
36% |
42% |
|
Somewhat worse than expected |
22% |
13% |
|
Much worse than expected |
9% |
6% |
|
No opinion |
8% |
7% |
Source: Essential Research
Methodology: Online interviews with 1,033 Australian adults, conducted from Dec. 14 to Dec. 20, 2009. No margin of error was provided.
