The NEXT coming Oz election thread!

West's swingers rallying to Coalition

Tony Barrass | September 26, 2007
WESTERN Australia is becoming a Coalition stronghold, with growing numbers of swinging voters intending to back John Howard.

The latest Newspoll also shows that the Carpenter Government's healthy lead over the state's Opposition has completely evaporated.

The poll, conducted exclusively for The Australian between July and this month, shows Labor's lead on a two-party-preferred basis has dropped three points to 51, while support for the Opposition has risen by three to 49.

This comes on the heels of last week's Newspoll, which picked up a clear firming of the federal conservative vote in the west in the build-up to a pre-Christmas election.

It also reinforces internal Liberal Party polling, revealed in The Australian yesterday, that shows the Coalition would have kept all its 10 seats in the west had an election been held two weeks ago, and picked up Labor-held Cowan.

While support for the state Opposition Liberal and National parties has strengthened dramatically in the past three months, the poll reinforces doubts about Opposition leader Paul Omodei's qualities.

Mr Omodei has been struggling to get any traction on a range of issues that have plagued the Carpenter Government throughout this year. Having won a leadership spill by just one vote when he challenged Matt Birney in March last year, Mr Omodei, a former potato farmer, has been floundering ever since and has had little public support from an inexperienced team.

Despite Labor remaining at its highest level of primary support since the February 2005 state election - an unchanged 44 per cent - its lead over the Opposition has all but disappeared.

Support for the Liberal Party and Nationals is 38 per cent and 5 per cent respectively, with combined support for these Opposition parties up from 38 per cent to just one point below Labor.

This represents a return to state voting patterns not seen since the beginning of the year.

Primary support for the Greens is 6 per cent, while combined support for other minor parties and independents is 7 per cent, down slightly over the past two quarters.

One of Mr Omodei's many leadership issues is the Premier himself, who remains popular with voters and is by far the preferred leader.

For the third consecutive quarter, more voters are dissatisfied than satisfied with Mr Omodei's performance as Opposition Leader. The proportion of voters satisfied with Alan Carpenter's performance as Premier has remained steady at 58 per cent, as does that - 26 per cent - of those who are unhappy with his performance.

But the proportion of voters who are dissatisfied with Mr Omodei's performance outstrips those who are satisfied, a trend that will only renew talk of leadership spills once the federal election is over

I've noticed that The Australian has been trying to get Howard elected for a while now. They used to be very blatant about it, but recently they have been becoming much more subtle (it took thousands of online complaints before they changed tack)

I've noticed that The Australian has been trying to get Howard elected for a while now. They used to be very blatant about it, but recently they have been becoming much more subtle (it took thousands of online complaints before they changed tack)