The Rockliff Liberal government has strengthened its position three months after forming a minority government, with a new poll showing growing voter satisfaction with the Premier’s leadership.
The Liberals now hold 41% of the primary vote – a 1.1 percentage point lift since the state election.
Labor’s support has slipped to 24%, down 1.9 points.
The DemosAU poll of 1,021 Tasmanian voters, conducted between October 16 and 27, suggests governing in minority has done little to dent Rockliff’s popularity.
On the question of preferred premier, Rockliff leads Labor’s Josh Willie 46-34%.
“The Liberals have slightly improved their position since the last election which suggests that Tasmanians overall seem satisfied with the Liberals in office post-election and haven’t changed their mind much since the election,” DemosAU head of research George Hasanakos said.
When voters were asked to rate nine of Tasmania’s high-profile state political figures, Rockliff received a net positive score of 5%, the highest of all tested.
Shadow treasurer Dean Winter recorded the worst result with a net rating of minus 33%.
“At this early stage, governing in the minority has not hurt the Rockliff Liberal state government, with a slightly improved electoral position and Rockliff having the best personal ratings among leading figures in the House of Assembly,” Hasanakos said.
However, he warned the Liberal vote appeared heavily dependent on the premier’s personal appeal.
“Other senior Liberals Deputy Premier Guy Barnett and Treasurer Eric Abetz don’t perform as well, indicating that the Liberals electoral support is driven by Rockliff’s personal popularity,” he said.
“In this poll the Liberals are doing better among younger voters than older voters which definitely bucks the trend of the usual behaviour of older people generally voting more conservative.”
Hasanakos said the proposed Hobart waterfront stadium project appeared to be influencing voter sentiment.
“We put this down to older people being more skeptical about the Macquarie Point stadium and they are putting their votes with independents who are more likely to oppose the stadium,” he said.
The Greens secured 15% of the primary vote (up 0.6%), followed by Independents on 14% (down 1.3%).
The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party received 2% (down 0.9%), while other candidates attracted 4% (up 2.4%).
