Australian PM Morrison’s High Approval Rating Continues, Survey Says

Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks during a press conference in Sydney, Australia, on March 13, 2020. (Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s approval rating remains high, despite the economic difficulties facing Australians and governments nationwide, a Newspoll released on June 8 says.

Conducted by YouGov between June 3 and June 6, and based on 1,512 online surveys, the poll published in The Australian noted that Morrison’s approval rating is holding steady, with 66 percent of people polled approving of the way the prime minister is doing his job.

Recording a high of 68 percent in April 2020, Morrison currently has one the highest approval ratings of any prime minister since Newspoll started in the 1980s.

Australians also still prefer Morrison as prime minister over opposition leader Anthony Albanese.

Among those who participated in the survey, 56 percent thought Morrison was the better of the two for the role of prime minister.

However, Morrison’s approval rating has not translated into further gains in polling for the right-leaning Liberal-National Coalition government. According to polling results from both May and June 2020, 51 percent of Australians would vote for the coalition over the left-leaning Australian Labour Party, which scored 49 percent.

READ MORE

• The True Origin of Left and Right

The Newspoll also indicated that the Coalition and Labor did lose some ground in the poll this month in voting preferences, with The Greens and One Nation making gains.

According to the Australians polled, 42 percent would vote for the Coalition if an election was called today, down one percentage point since May, and 34 percent would vote for Labor, also down one percentage point since May.

The poll has a 2.5 percentage margin of error.

Albanese Losing Ground

The most significant change in the Newspoll was around Anthony Albanese, who lost points across several polls.

According to YouGov, Albanese lost three percentage points in the preferred prime minister poll, dropping from 29 to 26 percent in June.

Australians also became increasingly dissatisfied with his performance as opposition leader, with satisfaction in his overall performance dropping from 44 percent to 41 percent in June.

Majority Support Morrison’s Handling of Pandemic

The poll also noted that a large majority of Australians across all political parties and age groups support the Morrison government’s tough stance on China and its decision to call for a World Health Organization inquiry into the origins of the CCP virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

The results revealed that 87 percent of Coalition supporters, 72 percent of Labor supporters, and 72 percent of Greens supporters approved of the Morrison government’s active push for an independent inquiry into the origins of the CCP virus and China and the WHO’s handling of the pandemic.

Broken down by age, 71 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds, 79 percent of 35- to 49-year-olds, 82 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds and 84 percent of those over the age of 65 believed that the Morrison government is right in pushing for an independent COVID-19 inquiry.

Regarding China, 80 percent of Coalition supporters, 68 percent of Labor supporters, and 58 percent of Greens supporters believe that Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the regime in Beijing had a negative impact on the world’s ability to respond to the COVID-19 virus.