By Renju Jose
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s centre-left Labor government is likely to retain power in a close-run national election this weekend, two opinion polls showed on Thursday, with voters ranking U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies among their top concerns.
A RedBridge-Accent poll published by News Corp newspapers on Thursday showed Labor leading 53%-47% against the conservative Liberal-National coalition under Australia’s two-party preferential voting system, where votes are distributed until a winner is declared.
Labor could win the election in its own right or form a minority government, the RedBridge poll said, marking a reversal of sentiment from February, when voters wanted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese out of office.
The lift in support for Labor late in the campaign is driven by Millennials and Generation Z voters, with one in five saying they had changed their mind, the RedBridge poll said.
Millennials and Generation Z voters make up 43% of the 18 million people enrolled under Australia’s mandatory voting system, outnumbering the powerful Baby Boomer bloc.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals staged a major political comeback to retain power in Canada’s election, fuelled by a backlash against Trump’s policies and his comments on making Canada the 51st U.S. state.
About 48% of Australian voters picked the uncertainties triggered by Trump as one of their top five concerns, while 42% remained wary of the opposition’s plans to build seven nuclear plants across the country to help replace coal-fired power.
The online poll of 1,011 voters was conducted between April 24 and 29.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has campaigned on several policies seen widely as emulating Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) set up by Elon Musk, though he later abandoned a policy that would have required government workers return to office full time.
Comparisons with Trump and his policies have dragged down Dutton’s popularity in Australia, where a poll last month showed Australians’ faith in the United States had hit an all-time low.
A separate YouGov poll released on Thursday predicted a Labor majority, with the party likely winning up to 85 seats in the 150-seat lower house and the opposition facing a net loss of 11 seats, its worst performance since 1946.
Albanese has been downplaying the poll results, saying it would be a close campaign.
(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
Comments