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November 28, 2023
High-profile journalists and politicians have taken aim at Anthony Albanese amid declining support in polling on the back of a tumultuous couple of months for the Labor government.
The failure of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum and the national response to the ongoing Israel and Hamas conflict in Gaza and Australia’s cost-of-living struggles have heaped pressure on the Prime Minister while he has faced significant scrutiny on the topic of national security.
His handling of the High Court’s decision to release dangerous detainees was criticised before he flew out to the APEC Summit in San Francisco during the scandal while he was hammered for taking a “soft” approach to an incident where the Chinese navy left an Australian diver injured.
The latest Newspoll survey on Monday revealed the PM’s approval ratings had reached its lowest level since the election, at -13 per cent.
Sky News Australia host Sharri Markson said it was a “clear reflection” of the PM’s “poor performance on a range of issues” and was starting to “cement the impression that he's an incompetent leader who is soft on national security.”
“The risk for Albanese is that appearing weak like with the issue of the immigration scandal and the Chinese attack on our divers starts to turn Dutton's negatives into positives,” she said on Monday night.
“Labor will be looking to reset over the Christmas period, hoping the holiday break will make people forget the inadequate leadership and debacles of this year. And while that may be true to some extent, the financial pressures for hundreds of thousands of Australian families aren't going to improve anytime soon.”
The Australian’s National Editor Dennis Shanahan said the nation had “woken up to” the Labor Party and were losing confidence in their ability to lead.
“There is obviously a failure as far as the appeal for Anthony Albanese is concerned,” he told Sky News Australia host Peta Credlin on Monday.
“I think the failure of the Indigenous referendum was clearly the beginning of this, but we've seen since then crisis after crisis, event after event mishandled by the Government and now what we are seeing is that disapproval rating with Anthony Albanese, which has been there for a while now, bleeding into the Government big time.
“This is a terrible time for the Government to go into the summer break on its lowest primary vote in a decade.”
Senator James Paterson described the situation in Canberra as “utterly shambolic” after a dramatic day in which he claimed the Coalition helped pass two urgent bills on national security before backflipping.
“They told us that these two bills must pass the parliament today. One of them was to clean up drafting errors that they had identified in their own legislation, which passed the Parliament only a week ago. And the other was to deal with this citizens cessation law, which the High Court had ruled partially invalid. (They) basically put a gun to our head and said these bills must pass,” he said.
“And yet this afternoon, they've now admitted, maybe these bills don't need to pass today. Maybe they can be put on pause
“I mean, it really is utterly shambolic here in Canberra. This Government has no idea what it is doing when it comes to national security and border protection, and the community is in danger as a result because we have at least 141 people who are in the community, not all of whom are being electronically monitored, contrary to their commitment to do so.
Former Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger argued the government is “losing on every issue”, reiterating his suggestion last week that Peter Dutton has a good chance of challenging the PM in the next federal election.
“The government is losing on every issue,” he said on a panel on Sky News Australia’s The Bolt Report.
“The disastrous Voice, which has now still got two planks of it still to go. Immigration levels are out of control. Interest rates out of control. Cost of living out of control. Too many trips people think he's taken overseas…boat arrivals, criminals been let out of jail. (Chris) Bowen running into a fog on energy. They’re losing on every single issue.”
The Prime Minister also faced serious heat during Question Time when the teals attacked the government over its response to domestic and family violence.
Independent MP Zoe Daniel brought the issue into question on Monday in parliament before fellow teal MP Zali Steggall accused Labor of lacking “urgency” in tackling violence against women.
The PM gave an impassioned response before he found an unlikely ally in Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.
“I support the Prime Minister in his comments... this is not an issue for point scoring or political difference. The Australian public should hear that there is no difference between either side, anybody in this chamber, in relation to this most serious issue,” Mr Dutton said.
“Every government, including this government, has dedicated themselves to doing the best to reduce violence through funding, through programs, through innovation, and the support that the Prime Minister expects from all of us is forthcoming and will be forthcoming.
“I don’t believe that it’s a fair critique of the government that they haven’t done enough or they’re not doing enough or don’t have intention to act properly in this space. I don’t think that’s the view of the Prime Minister at all and it mischaracterises the approach of the government and the approach of the opposition will be to support it.”
The Newspoll revealed 50 per cent of Australians feel financially worse off under the Labor government with renters and mortgage holders under significant stress in particular.
A whopping 60 per cent of Australians in the 35 to 49-year-old age bracket said they felt worse off than they were two years ago.
