(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Australia’s coalition of opposition parties has gained momentum and unseated the ruling Australian Labor Party (ALP) from the top spot, according to a poll by Newspoll published in The Australian. 41 per cent of respondents would vote for the Liberal or National parties in the next election to the House of Representatives, unchanged since late February.
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Australia’s coalition of opposition parties has gained momentum and unseated the ruling Australian Labor Party (ALP) from the top spot, according to a poll by Newspoll published in The Australian. 41 per cent of respondents would vote for the Liberal or National parties in the next election to the House of Representatives, unchanged since late February.
The ALP is a close second with 39 per cent, followed by the Australian Greens with 11 per cent. Australia’s preferential voting system—where electors indicate an order of predilection for each contender, and the ballots from smaller parties are re-distributed—gives the ALP a four-point lead over the Coalition.
Australia held a federal election in November 2007. Final results gave the ALP 85 seats in the 150-member House of Representatives. ALP leader Kevin 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 Tony Abbott, who defeated Turnbull in an internal leadership ballot by just one vote in December 2009.
The ALP fared poorly in state elections celebrated on Mar. 20 in South Australia and Tasmania.
On Mar. 22, Rudd commented on his party’s performance over the election weekend, saying, "Working families want better health and better hospital services and I will be working with any premier from any state, Labor or Liberal, to bring that about."
Polling Data
If a federal election to the House of Representatives were held today, which one of the following would you vote for? If "Uncommitted", to which one of these do you have a leaning?
|
|
Mar. 14
|
Feb. 28
|
Feb. 14
|
|
Coalition (Liberal / National)
|
41%
|
41%
|
39%
|
|
Australian Labor Party
|
39%
|
40%
|
40%
|
|
Australian Greens
|
11%
|
9%
|
12%
|
|
Others
|
9%
|
9%
|
9%
|
Two-Party Preferred Vote
|
|
Mar. 14
|
Feb. 28
|
Feb. 14
|
|
Australian Labor Party
|
52%
|
52%
|
53%
|
|
Coalition (Liberal / National)
|
48%
|
48%
|
47%
|
Source: Newspoll / The Australian
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,143 Australian voters, conducted from Mar. 12 to Mar. 14, 2010. Margin of error is 3 per cent.
