The Victorian Coalition government is failing to make any ground on Labor in the state election, a new poll suggests.
Labor continues to lead the Coalition 56% to 44% on a two-party preferred basis, the Fairfax Ipsos poll shows.
The Coalition’s primary vote sits at 39% and puts the government at risk of being voted out after only one term.
But the premier, Denis Napthine, is still ahead of the Labor opposition leader, Daniel Andrews, in the preferred leader stakes, though that gap is closing at 39% to 45%. Andrews’ approval is up 3% since the October poll.
The poll of 1,000 voters was taken from 6 to 9 November, with the election on 29 November.
But the government is not giving up, with the planning minister, Matthew Guy, telling radio 3AW on Friday morning it was a “Mickey Mouse poll”.
He disputed the accuracy of the poll because it asked people to choose their own preferences, whereas other polls are based on preferences from the previous election.
The Coalition hopes its campaign will gain momentum as election day draws closer, given the poll was taken before the Liberal party’s campaign launch last Sunday. Their internal polling suggests the competition for marginal seats is much tighter than the Ipsos poll shows.
In a bid to boost the government’s approval rating, Napthine continues to distance himself from the prime minister, Tony Abbott, with 23% of voters saying they were less likely to re-elect the state government because of the performance of the federal government.
In a two-page interview in Melbourne’s Herald Sun on Thursday, Napthine criticised aspects of the Abbott budget.
“I think there’s a view in Victoria, and there’s some parts of it I share, that some of the decisions he [Abbott] has made have been decisions that are perhaps not as well targeted as they could be,” Napthine said.
“I’ve already spoken out against the [$7 Medicare] co-payment, I think the co-payment in terms of GPs could be better structured.”
He would serve a full term if re-elected, Napthine said.
“I’ve had a rule in my life that I’d never bet on anything that had two legs, but if I was a betting man I’d certainly back the Coalition”.
