Debt fears grip voters as Albanese’s approval rating slides

Voters’ faith in Labor to manage the economy has crashed, with 74 per cent concerned about the federal debt and 48 per cent demanding the government slash spending.

After a week in which former prime minister Kevin Rudd warned that Australia risked becoming a second-rate country and former ACTU chief Bill Kelty accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers of fuelling support for One Nation and insulting voters by welcoming lower house prices, voters have marked down the government for its economic management.

Four months on from a May budget that made major changes to Australia’s property tax laws, Labor is going backwards as the party considered best placed to manage the economy through economic turmoil, while the prime minister’s personal approval rating continues to slide.

Just under a quarter of voters – 23 per cent – said they had lost trust in Albanese because of broken promises in the budget. This compares with 34 per cent of voters saying they didn’t trust him before the broken promises and 26 per cent saying they still trusted him.

The Resolve Political Monitor was conducted for this masthead from September 6 to 12 and surveyed 2250 voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 per cent.

There was little movement in vote support for the parties over the month. Labor ’s primary vote was 28 per cent in September’s Resolve poll, unchanged from last month, while the Coalition’s primary vote rose 1 percentage point to 24 per cent and One Nation also rose by 1 point in the past month, to 27 per cent.

The 1 percentage point rise in the Coalition’s primary vote and a 1 per cent rise in Opposition Leader Angus Taylor’s net performance rating are both within the margin of error, and the official opposition still trails One Nation and Pauline Hanson. But those small rises, combined with significant concern over debt and deficit, light a path for Taylor to follow through to political relevance and competitiveness.

Four months on from the introduction of investment tax increases in the May budget, more than a quarter of voters – 27 per cent – say the Liberals are best placed to manage the economy, while Labor at 23 per cent is only just ahead of One Nation at 21 per cent on this key metric.

Asked which party was best at managing the government’s finances, respondents also put the Liberals ahead of Labor and One Nation.

Voters’ worries about debt extended to state governments too, with 69 per cent concerned, just 11 per cent unconcerned and 20 per cent undecided.