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A Labor minister has dismissed a poll that characterized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as a “follower, not a leader”, “bland” and a “beta man” who was ineffective in tackling the nation’s cost of living crisis.
The derogatory labels emerged in focus groups conducted in marginal seats in Queensland and South Australia by Victoria-based polling company RedBridge for NewsCorp.
During an interview with Sky News on Sunday, Agriculture Minister Murray Watt insisted Albanese was making “difficult” decisions.
“So I’m not worried about those kinds of comments and I think the records show that Albo and the entire cabinet have made the difficult decisions that the country needed,” Watt said.
Agriculture Minister Murray Watt (pictured left having a beer with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese) says he is not concerned about the unfavorable comments emerging from focus groups.
However, Watt admitted focus groups showed skyrocketing costs were a key issue for Australians.
“What I think it highlights is the importance of the cost of living issues that so many Australians face,” he said.
“Obviously, when people are doing it wrong, like they are doing now, they expect the government to take tough action to address those cost of living issues and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
Mr Watt downplayed Mr Albanese’s personal assessments.
“That doesn’t worry me too much,” he told Sky News political editor Andrew Clennell.
‘It is, as you say, a focus group and all kinds of people say all kinds of things in focus groups.
“I think if I walked down Brisbane’s main street this morning there would be some people who would also give me a free character assessment.”
Since the resounding defeat of the Indigenous Voice proposal in Parliament in a referendum in mid-October, Labor’s polls have begun to plummet.
Albanese (pictured outside his Marrickville home) faces a popularity slump in recent poll
This trend has been exacerbated by the outcry over the Albanese government’s handling of a High Court ruling to release detained immigrants with serious criminal records into the community.
Monday’s Newspoll showed the Prime Minister’s approval rating had fallen to its lowest level since the Labor Party came to power 18 months ago.
It also showed that the Labor primary vote was in free fall, falling four points to 31 per cent in the last three weeks, while the Coalition’s has risen one point to 38 per cent, its highest support since the May 2022 election.
On a two-party preference basis, Labor and the Coalition are tied 50-50 in the poll, which would likely lead to Labor losing five seats and its majority if an election were held now.
Redbridge surveyed voters in the Brisbane, Griffith, Ryan, Sturt and Boothby electorates.
Participants expressed the worrying perception for Labor that Albanese was distracted by things that were not of central interest to most Australians.
“You haven’t really addressed the cost of living, and I understand there are global factors at play, but I don’t think you’ve taken many concrete steps on that,” one participant said.
‘I just don’t see much action on cost of living pressures. “He is missing in action and now he is fleeing abroad again,” said one of them.
Even Albanese’s working-class authenticity, normally considered one of his strengths, was questioned.
“He plays with Australian colloquialisms and wears that damn Rabbitoh cap, I’m embarrassed.” He seems very staged,’ commented one focus group participant.