Older, conservative voters abandoning support for Australian PM: opinion poll

Older and more conservative voters are abandoning their support for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's Liberal-National Party (LNP) coalition government, a survey has shown, while a separate poll said Liberal voters were increasingly backing a shift to renewable energies.

According to the results of Newspoll's quarterly analysis, the government would lose a federal election if it was held today, with older voters leading the charge abandoning the government's slow move to the center of the political spectrum, instead favoring Pauline Hanson's far-right party, One Nation.

At the 2016 federal election, held in July, One Nation received just 1.3 percent of the overall national vote. According to Newspoll, if an election was to be held today, One Nation would receive 10 percent of the national support.

Just 1.8 percent of older voters aged 50 and above backed One Nation last July, while 11 percent have now said they would vote for the far-right party at the next election.

Consequently, the government's primary vote (before preferences) support level has fallen from 42.1 percent in July to just 35 percent; Turnbull's coalition now trails the Labor opposition which has 36 percent of the overall public support, up almost two points from the election.

After preferences in the two-party preferred category the coalition has slipped from 50.4 percent to 47 percent, with Labor increasing from 49.6 percent to 53 percent indicating that Labor would take over if an election was held today.

Meanwhile a separate poll, taken for the Australia Institute, found that more than two-thirds of all voters believe the shift to renewable energy was happening too slowly. Interestingly, 55 percent of coalition voters traditionally in favor of more stable energy sources such as coal said the shift was too slow.

Only 9 percent of coalition voters said the shift was happening too fast. Endit