New ‘reliable’ Newspoll shows Coalition on top but Morrison struggling

Aussies are continuing to throw their support behind the Coalition, with Labor falling further behind in preferences, according to a revamped Newspoll.

The poll conducted for The Australian showed voters favoured the Coalition as the party to lead the country, with a two-party-preferred vote of 51-49.

But Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Labor leader Anthony Albanese appear to have both failed to impress Aussies, with the two politicians rating poorly in the poll.

Newspoll overhauled its methods after all pollsters were hammered following the May 18 federal election, for which most picked Labor as the preferred party. Instead of sticking with traditional polling methods such as robocalls, Newspoll is now gathering its research through an online survey.

The new, online survey was conducted between Thursday and Saturday last week, with 1,519 voters taking part.

While the Coalition narrowly maintained its lead over Labor, the dissatisfaction with leader Morrison has grown. The prime minister received a satisfaction rating of 43 per cent, while his dissatisfaction score was 52 per cent.

It is the first time since the election that Morrison has received a larger negative score than positive.

However, Albanese’s position as favoured prime minister didn’t look good either, with the Labor leader receiving a 32 per cent satisfaction rating from survey participants, a drop since the last Newspoll. Albanese’s dissatisfaction score jumped from 37 per cent to 45 per cent.

Meanwhile, One Nation’s primary vote dropped from 7 per cent to 5 per cent, and the Greens’ primary vote remained at 12 per cent.

The new results come after Newspoll was criticised for its performance around the federal election. In the final Newspoll before election day, then-Labor leader Bill Shorten looked set to take over as the country’s next prime minister.

The Australian‘s pre-election Newspoll showed Labor had gained a 1.9 per cent swing against the Coalition; Labor apparently led the Coalition 51.5 per cent to 48.5 per cent on a two-party-preferred vote basis in the poll.

But the election results went completely the other way, with Morrison returning as prime minister after leading the LNP to victory. This prompted Labor’s previous leader Shorten to step down from his position in the party.

Campbell White, from YouGov Asia-Pacific, which conducts Newspoll for The Australian, said the new polling method gave a more accurate representation of the views of Australians, adding that the failure to predict the outcome of the recent election proved methods of data collection needed to change, with calls to landlines no longer the most accurate method.

“They [landlines] tend to be answered largely by older people or those who are very interested in politics,” White told The Australian. “Busy people who are less interested in politics either don’t answer or hang up. We believe this was a significant contributor to the inaccuracies seen at the election.”