Sky News Australia can reveal Labor polling which shows Peter Dutton as a net negative in the seat of Aston and which prompted the party to frame the by-election as almost as a referendum on Mr Dutton’s leadership.
The polling, conducted between March 12 and 14, has Labor behind the Coalition 48-52 on a two-party preferred basis ahead of this Saturday’s poll – a swing of 0.8 per cent towards Labor.
But the favourability figures around the Liberal leader are damning.
The poll found just 21 per cent of people had a favourable view of Mr Dutton, 50 per cent were unfavourable with 24 per cent unsure and five per cent having never heard of him.
Even among Liberal voters, 23 per cent had an unfavourable view of Mr Dutton compared to 45 per cent favourable and 30 per cent unsure.
Mr Albanese’s ratings in the seat, by contrast, were 56 favourable, 26 per cent unfavourable with 17 per cent unsure.
During the campaign, the Labor party has distributed material saying ‘’the Liberals need to do better than Dutton. Peter Dutton was rejected by his own party as leader twice. As health minister he tried to introduce a $7 GP Tax and was voted worst health minister in 40 years by Australian doctors. At the Aston by-election Send a message – the Liberals need to do better than Peter Dutton.”
Earlier this week, Mr Dutton told the party room that the Victorian Liberal Moira Deeming controversy was hurting the prospects of the Liberal party in Aston.
This prompted Mr Albanese to say in Question Time on Wednesday that Mr Dutton would be framed as a negative for the Liberals on Labor material on voting day.
“He made appearances on corflutes last Saturday Mr Speaker,’’ Mr Albanese said.
“He mightn’t have been able to go to New South Wales, but we made sure he was there. We made sure he had a big presence. And I’ll give you the big tip: he’ll be there in Aston too on Saturday.’’
Source: skynews.com.au
