Better leadership during Covid-19 – PM vs state leader
Q. Who do you think has demonstrated better leadership qualities throughout the Covid-19 pandemic in Australia?
| TOTAL: All states | |
| Prime Minister Scott Morrison | 30% |
| TOTAL: State Premier / Chief Minister | 52% |
| Don’t know | 19% |
| Base (n) | 1,109 |
- The majority of people (52%) think their state leaders have demonstrated better leadership qualities throughout the Covid-19 pandemic in Australia than the Prime Minister.
- About a third (30%) think the opposite is true – that the PM has performed better than state leaders and 19% don’t know.
- The pattern of people thinking their state leader has demonstrated better leadership qualities throughout the pandemic than the Prime Minister is consistent across each state. This is most apparent in WA where 76% think their premier, Mark McGowan, has demonstrated better leadership than Scott Morrison.
- Note: Due to small base sizes results for ACT, TAS and NT are not shown.
| TOTAL: NSW | TOTAL: VIC | TOTAL: QLD | TOTAL: SA | TOTAL: WA | |
| Prime Minister Scott Morrison | 29% | 34% | 32% | 29% | 19% |
| State Premier / Chief Minister | 44% | 49% | 55% | 50% | 76% |
| Don’t know | 27% | 17% | 13% | 21% | 5% |
| Base (n) | 338 | 297 | 225 | 91 | 107 |
Attitudes towards Craig Kelly controversy and Scott Morrison’s leadership
Q. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements about Liberal MP Craig Kelly sharing Covid-19 misinformation (e.g. advocating unproven treatments, claiming vaccines cannot be trusted, comparing masks to child abuse)?
| TOTAL: Agree | Total | Federal Voting Intention | |||
| Labor | TOTAL: Coalition | Greens | TOTAL: Other | ||
| Scott Morrison has shown poor leadership in how he has responded to Craig Kelly’s behaviour | 41% | 52% | 32% | 52% | 47% |
| Craig Kelly is more interested in sharing Covid-19 misinformation and building his media profile than representing his constituency | 56% | 60% | 58% | 70% | 56% |
| Craig Kelly’s behaviour is undermining Scott Morrison’s leadership by contradicting the Prime Minister on Covid-19 facts | 57% | 61% | 60% | 63% | 55% |
| Base (n) | 1,109 | 359 | 428 | 101 | 131 |
- Over half (57%) agree that Craig Kelly’s behaviour is undermining Scott Morrison’s leadership by contradicting the Prime Minister on Covid-19 facts and over half (56%) also agree that Craig Kelly is more interested in sharing Covid-19 misinformation and building his media profile than representing his constituency.
- Greens voters are more likely to agree with these two statements than other voters. Minor and independent party voters are the least likely to agree.
- 41% agree Scott Morrison has shown poor leadership in how he has responded to Craig Kelly’s behaviour. Labor and Greens voters are more likely to agree with this statement than Coalition and minor and independent party voters (52% and 52% to 32% and 47% respectively).
Performance of State Premiers
Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the job <NAME> is doing as State Premier?
[Only asked in NSW, VIC, QLD, SA and WA]
|
|
Gladys Berejiklian
NSW |
Daniel Andrews
VIC |
Annastacia Palaszczuk
QLD |
Steven Marshall
SA |
Mark McGowan
WA |
| Strongly approve | 27% | 25% | 23% | 16% | 53% |
| Approve | 41% | 29% | 39% | 36% | 31% |
| Disapprove | 14% | 16% | 12% | 14% | 6% |
| Strongly disapprove | 9% | 24% | 15% | 5% | 1% |
| Don’t know | 11% | 6% | 10% | 29% | 10% |
| TOTAL: Approve | 67% | 54% | 62% | 51% | 84% |
| TOTAL: Disapprove | 22% | 40% | 28% | 20% | 7% |
| Base (n) | 352 | 274 | 217 | 82 | 105 |
- Mark McGowan in WA has the highest approval of State premiers, with 84% approving of his leadership, and just 7% disapproval.
- Victorian Dan Andrews has the lowest approval rating (54% approval, with 40% disapproval). He maintains approval among Labor voters (78% approval), but majority of Coalition voters in Victoria disapprove of his leadership (54%).
- Gladys Berejiklian has a high approval rating compared to other state premiers (67%). She has a majority approval among Coalition voters (83%), Labor voters (57%) and other parties (60%).
- 62% of Queenslanders approval of the job Annastacia Palaszczuk is doing ahead of the election later this month. 28% disapprove of the Queensland premier, driven by high disapproval ratings among Coalition voters (37%).
World Leaders
Q. Do you hold favourable or unfavourable views of the following world leaders?
| Favourable | Unfavourable | Don’t know | Favour-able Vote Labor | Favour-able Vote Lib/Nat | Favour-able Vote Greens | Favour-able Vote other | ||
| Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau | 51% | 11% | 38% | 55% | 56% | 61% | 40% | |
| German Chancellor Angela Merkel | 43% | 17% | 40% | 43% | 55% | 51% | 33% | |
| French President Emmanuel Macron | 41% | 14% | 44% | 44% | 48% | 49% | 36% | |
| UK Prime Minister Theresa May | 33% | 27% | 40% | 29% | 46% | 21% | 38% | |
| Russian President Vladimir Putin | 16% | 61% | 23% | 15% | 17% | 15% | 27% | |
| US President Donald Trump | 16% | 70% | 14% | 9% | 23% | 7% | 29% | |
| North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-Un | 6% | 80% | 13% | 7% | 9% | 4% | 4% |
Respondents were most likely to have a favourable view of Justin Trudeau (51%), Angela Merkel (43%) and Emmanuel Macron (41%).
Liberal/National voters were more likely than average to have a favourable view of Theresa May (46%) and Donald Trump (23%).
Labor voters did not differ much from the average – except for their low rating of Donald Trump (9% favourable).
Best Leader of the Labor Party
Q. Which of the following do you think would make the best leader of the Labor Party?
|
30 May 2011 |
Total |
Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
|
| Julia Gillard |
23% |
16% |
40% |
4% |
21% |
| Kevin Rudd |
32% |
31% |
33% |
32% |
32% |
| Wayne Swan |
2% |
4% |
6% |
4% |
5% |
| Greg Combet |
4% |
2% |
1% |
2% |
2% |
| Bill Shorten |
3% |
6% |
8% |
5% |
3% |
| Someone else |
19% |
23% |
6% |
33% |
18% |
| Don’t know |
17% |
17% |
6% |
19% |
19% |
33% think Kevin Rudd would make the best leader of the Labor Party and 16% prefer Julia Gillard. This represents declines of 1% for Kevin Rudd and 7% for Julia Gillard since this question was asked nearly 12 months ago. Those selecting “someone else” has increased from 19% to 23%.
Julia Gillard is preferred by 40% of Labor voters compared to 33% for Kevin Rudd. Men prefer Kevin Rudd over Julia Gillard 33% to 16% and women by 28% to 17%.
Best Leader of the Liberal Party
Q. Which of the following do you think would make the best leader of the Liberal Party?
|
27 Sep 2010 |
28 Feb 2011 |
30 May 2011 |
Total |
Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
|
| Tony Abbott |
26% |
24% |
22% |
23% |
11% |
39% |
3% |
| Malcolm Turnbull |
20% |
18% |
25% |
30% |
37% |
26% |
53% |
| Joe Hockey |
15% |
16% |
17% |
14% |
12% |
17% |
12% |
| Julie Bishop |
5% |
4% |
3% |
5% |
4% |
5% |
5% |
| Andrew Robb |
na |
1% |
1% |
1% |
2% |
1% |
– |
| Someone else |
na |
14% |
13% |
12% |
16% |
6% |
18% |
| Don’t know |
33% |
22% |
19% |
16% |
18% |
7% |
10 |
30% (+5%) think Malcolm Turnbull would make the best leader of the Liberal Party, 23% (+1%) prefer Tony Abbott and 14% (-3%) Joe Hockey.
Among Liberal/National voters, 39% (-1%) prefer Tony Abbott, 26% (+7%) Malcolm Turnbull and 17% (-5%) Joe Hockey.
Malcolm Turnbull is preferred by 33% of men and 28% of women, Tony Abbott by 26% of men and 19% of women.
Labor Leadership issue
Q. Who do you think is mainly responsible for the leadership problems of the Labor Party?
|
Total |
Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
|
| Kevin Rudd |
18% |
27% |
16% |
21% |
| Julia Gillard |
39% |
28% |
55% |
16% |
| Other people in the Labor Party |
23% |
23% |
21% |
25% |
| The media |
10% |
16% |
4% |
25% |
| Don’t know |
10% |
7% |
4% |
12% |
39% of respondents think that Julia Gillard is mainly responsible for the leadership problems of the Labor Party, 23% think other people in the Labor Party are responsible and 18% think Kevin Rudd is responsible. Only 10% think the media are mainly responsible.
A majority (55%) of Liberal/National voters think Julia Gillard is mainly responsible while Labor and Greens voters are fairly evenly divided between Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd and other people in the Labor Party. 25% of Greens voters think that the media are responsible.
Approval of Julia Gillard
Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the job Julia Gillard is doing as Prime Minister?
| 19 Jul 2010 | 20 Dec 2010 | 14 Mar
2011 |
14 June | 12 Sept | 17 Oct | 14 Nov | 12 Dec | 16 Jan 2012 | 13 Feb | |
| Total approve | 52% | 43% | 41% | 34% | 28% | 34% | 37% | 34% | 37% | 36% |
| Total disapprove | 30% | 40% | 46% | 54% | 64% | 59% | 55% | 54% | 52% | 53% |
| Strongly approve | 11% | 10% | 7% | 6% | 5% | 7% | 8% | 6% | 6% | 6% |
| Approve | 41% | 33% | 34% | 28% | 23% | 27% | 29% | 28% | 31% | 30% |
| Disapprove | 17% | 24% | 22% | 29% | 28% | 27% | 25% | 25% | 27% | 26% |
| Strongly disapprove | 13% | 16% | 24% | 25% | 36% | 32% | 30% | 29% | 25% | 27% |
| Don’t know | 18% | 17% | 13% | 13% | 8% | 7% | 9% | 11% | 12% | 11% |
Julia Gillard’s approval rating has remained much the same as last month. 36% (down 1%) approve of the job Julia Gillard is doing as Prime Minister and 53% (up 1%) disapprove – a change in net rating from -15 to -17 over the last 4 weeks.
79% of Labor voters approve (up 3%) and 14% disapprove (down 1%).
By gender – men 39% approve/53% disapprove, women 34% approve/52% disapprove.
COVID-19 RESEARCH
Read Essential's ongoing research on the public response to Covid-19.
Essential Report
In this week's report:
- Performance of Scott Morrison
- Performance of Anthony Albanese
- Preferred Prime Minister
- Views towards re-electing the federal Coalition government
- Party trust to handle issues
- Importance of Australia’s international reputation
- Scott Morrison’s impact on Australia’s international reputation
- Views towards Australia’s international reputation
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