The Victorian premier, Denis Napthine, is headed for election defeat, the final poll before Saturday’s election shows, following an uninspired final week of campaigning by the major parties.
The Galaxy poll published in Friday’s Herald Sun puts Labor in an election-winning lead of 52% to the Coalition’s 48% on a two-party prefered basis, virtually unchanged from three months ago.
The poll projects Labor to win 48 of 88 lower-house seats, while the Labor leader, Daniel Andrews, is preferred over Napthine by 38% of voters, up eight percentage points since just one week ago.
The poll found about 60% of people want the Coalition’s landmark East West Link toll-road project built, but other polls which give voters a choice about which transport projects should be the biggest priority for the next government suggest people also strongly support public transport.
The polling follows an awkward final week of election campaigning for Napthine, who has tried to distance himself from the prime minister, Tony Abbott. Many voters have said their negative opinion of the federal government will affect which way they will vote on Saturday.
Emphasising the uncomfortable relationship between the leaders, John Howard and Julie Bishop have come to Victoria to campaign for Napthine, only serving to underline Abbott’s absence.
Speaking to ABC radio on Friday morning, Napthine said he had not given up.
“Victorians have a clear choice between a Coalition government of sound financial management and a real vision to create 200,000 jobs in the next five years, and build the biggest modernisation plan in Victoria’s history,” he said.
Unemployment has damaged the government – when the Coalition came to power in 2010 unemployment was at 5%. Now, it sits at 6.8%.
Andrews, also speaking to ABC radio on Friday morning, said he still intended to rip up the East West Link contracts if he was successful on Saturday, despite Abbott saying $3bn in federal funding allocated towards the project would be withdrawn if the project was dumped.
“I’ll never work for Tony Abbott, I’ll work with him of course,” Andrews said. “But if he wants to be the infrastructure PM, then I have many other infrastructure projects he can partner in.”
Both Victorian daily newspapers, the Age and the Herald Sun, endorsed the Coalition in their editorials on Friday.
