Essential Report
Performance of Anthony Albanese
Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the job Anthony Albanese is doing as Opposition Leader?
| Jan’20 | Dec’19 | Nov’19 | Oct’19 | Sep’19 | Aug’19 | Jul’19 | |
| NET: Approve | 43% | 39% | 37% | 40% | 36% | 38% | 39% |
| NET: Disapprove | 30% | 28% | 34% | 29% | 31% | 29% | 24% |
| Don’t know | 27% | 33% | 29% | 31% | 33% | 33% | 37% |
| Base (n) | 1,081 | 1,035 | 1,075 | 1,088 | 1,093 | 1,096 | 1,091 |
| Total | Federal Voting Intention | ||||
| Labor | Coalition | Greens | NET: Other | ||
| Strongly approve | 8% | 16% | 4% | 8% | 2% |
| Approve | 35% | 48% | 31% | 34% | 25% |
| Disapprove | 21% | 11% | 29% | 16% | 27% |
| Strongly disapprove | 10% | 2% | 17% | 4% | 15% |
| Don’t know | 27% | 22% | 19% | 39% | 30% |
| NET: Approve | 43% | 64% | 35% | 41% | 27% |
| NET: Disapprove | 30% | 13% | 46% | 20% | 43% |
| Base (n) | 1,081 | 349 | 372 | 106 | 148 |
- Approval for Albanese has remained steady heading into 2020, moving from 39% to 43% between December and January.
- His approval from within his voter base (64% among Labor voters) is not as strong as Scott Morrison (79% among Coalition voters).
- Those who don’t know about Albanese’s performance is now 27%, the lowest since he became the Labor leader.
Preferred Prime Minister
Q. Who do you think would makes the better Prime Minister out of Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese?
| Jan’20 | Nov’19 | Oct’19 | Sep’19 | Aug’19 | Jul’19 | Jun’19 | |
| Scott Morrison | 36% | 44% | 43% | 46% | 44% | 44% | 43% |
| Anthony Albanese | 39% | 28% | 28% | 25% | 28% | 26% | 25% |
| Don’t know | 25% | 29% | 29% | 29% | 28% | 31% | 32% |
| Base (n) | 1,081 | 1,075 | 1,088 | 1,093 | 1,096 | 1,091 | 1,099 |
- For the first time since becoming leader of the Labor party, more people consider Anthony Albanese more capable of being PM than Scott Morrison. 39% think Albanese would be the better PM, compared to 36% for Morrison.
- A 6pt drop from November for Morrison has coincided with an 11pt increase for Albanese.
- A quarter (25%) don’t know who would make the better PM between the two.
Performance of Anthony Albanese
Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the job Anthony Albanese is doing as Opposition Leader?
| Dec’19 | Nov’19 | Oct’19 | Sep’19 | Aug’19 | Jul’19 | Jun’19 | |
| NET: Approve | 39% | 37% | 40% | 36% | 38% | 39% | 35% |
| NET: Disapprove | 28% | 34% | 29% | 31% | 29% | 24% | 25% |
| Don’t know | 33% | 29% | 31% | 33% | 33% | 37% | 39% |
| Base (n) | 1,035 | 1,075 | 1,088 | 1,093 | 1,096 | 1,091 | 1,099 |
| Total | Federal Voting Intention | ||||
| Labor | Coalition | Greens | NET: Other | ||
| Strongly approve | 8% | 14% | 7% | 8% | 3% |
| Approve | 31% | 44% | 31% | 29% | 14% |
| Disapprove | 18% | 10% | 25% | 20% | 28% |
| Strongly disapprove | 10% | 4% | 15% | 7% | 20% |
| Don’t know | 33% | 28% | 22% | 35% | 35% |
| NET: Approve | 39% | 58% | 38% | 37% | 17% |
| NET: Disapprove | 28% | 14% | 40% | 28% | 48% |
| Base (n) | 1,035 | 339 | 356 | 106 | 116 |
- Anthony Albanese has 39% approval as Opposition Leader, but one third (33%) still don’t know how to rate his performance.
Performance of Anthony Albanese compared to expectations
Q. Since the federal election in May 2019, how has the performance of Anthony Albanese compared to your expectations?
| Performance of Anthony Albanese | Federal Voting Intention | |||||||
| Total | NET: Approve | NET: Disapprove | Don’t know | Labor | Coalition | Greens | NET: Other | |
| Has exceeded my expectations | 8% | 16% | 3% | 2% | 11% | 6% | 10% | 6% |
| Has met my expectations | 48% | 67% | 21% | 50% | 55% | 47% | 46% | 30% |
| Has fallen short of my expectations | 44% | 18% | 77% | 48% | 34% | 47% | 44% | 64% |
| Base (n) | 1,035 | 441 | 461 | 133 | 339 | 356 | 106 | 116 |
- Less than half of participants say that Anthony Albanese has met their expectations since the election, with 77% of those who disapprove of his performance saying he fell short of their expectations.
- Labor voters are most likely to say that he has met their expectations (55%) whereas 64% of other party or independent voters say he has fallen short of their expectations.
Performance of Anthony Albanese
Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the job Anthony Albanese is doing as Opposition Leader?
| Nov’19 | Oct’19 | Sep’19 | Aug’19 | Jul’19 | Jun’19 | |
| NET: Approve | 37% | 40% | 36% | 38% | 39% | 35% |
| NET: Disapprove | 34% | 29% | 31% | 29% | 24% | 25% |
| Don’t know | 29% | 31% | 33% | 33% | 37% | 39% |
| Base (n) | 1,075 | 1,088 | 1,093 | 1,096 | 1,091 | 1,099 |
| Total | Voting Intention | ||||
| Labor | Coalition | Greens | NET: Other | ||
| Strongly approve | 6% | 12% | 3% | 6% | 3% |
| Approve | 31% | 45% | 32% | 25% | 16% |
| Disapprove | 24% | 19% | 28% | 30% | 32% |
| Strongly disapprove | 9% | 2% | 14% | 7% | 18% |
| Don’t know | 29% | 23% | 22% | 32% | 31% |
| NET: Approve | 37% | 57% | 35% | 31% | 19% |
| NET: Disapprove | 34% | 21% | 43% | 37% | 50% |
| Base (n) | 1,075 | 325 | 377 | 107 | 155 |
- Anthony Albanese has 37% approval as Opposition Leader, but just under one third (29%) don’t know how to rate his performance. More respondents are able to provide a rating on Albanese’s performance now, than when he first took over the position in June, when 39% recorded a response of don’t know.
- Approval with Albanese’s performance is driven by Labor party voters (57%), participants with a university education (47%) and males (43%).
Preferred Prime Minister
Q. Who do you think would makes the better Prime Minister out of Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese?
| Nov’19 | Oct’19 | Sep’19 | Aug’19 | Jul’19 | Jun’19 | |
| Scott Morrison | 44% | 43% | 46% | 44% | 44% | 43% |
| Anthony Albanese | 28% | 28% | 25% | 28% | 26% | 25% |
| Don’t know | 29% | 29% | 29% | 28% | 31% | 32% |
| Base (n) | 1,075 | 1,088 | 1,093 | 1,096 | 1,091 | 1,099 |
| Total | Gender | Age | ||||
| Male | Female | 18-34 | 35-54 | 55+ | ||
| Scott Morrison | 44% | 47% | 41% | 38% | 40% | 52% |
| Anthony Albanese | 28% | 30% | 25% | 33% | 25% | 26% |
| Don’t know | 29% | 23% | 34% | 29% | 35% | 22% |
| Base (n) | 1,075 | 526 | 549 | 327 | 371 | 377 |
- More than two-fifths of participants think that Scott Morrison makes the better PM (44%), which is on par with previous months from mid-2019 (between 43% and 46% since June).
- 29% don’t know who would make the better PM between Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese.
Better Prime Minister
Q. Who do you think would make the better Prime Minister out of Tony Abbott and Anthony Albanese?
Q. Who do you think would make the better Prime Minister out of Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten?
|
Total |
|
Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
|
| Tony Abbott |
37% |
7% |
74% |
11% |
|
| Anthony Albanese |
31% |
58% |
5% |
51% |
|
| Don’t know |
33% |
35% |
21% |
38% |
|
| Tony Abbott |
37% |
7% |
75% |
2% |
|
| Bill Shorten |
32% |
58% |
6% |
55% |
|
| Don’t know |
32% |
35% |
19% |
43% |
Tony Abbott is preferred to Anthony Albanese as Prime Minister by 37% to 31% and to Bill Shorten by 37% to 32%.
Among Labor voters both Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese are preferred 58% to 7%.
In comparison, immediately after the 2010 election Julia Gillard was preferred over Tony Abbott by 47% to 35%.
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