Australian PM under pressure as voter support slides

[webfact]

Australian PM under pressure as voter support slides

 

FILE PHOTO: Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (not pictured) address the media following their talks in Berlin, Germany, April 23, 2018. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/File Photo

 

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Voter support for Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull crashed to its lowest level since December, an opinion poll published on Monday showed, further stoking leadership speculation in his ruling centre-right coalition.

 

The Ipsos poll published in Fairfax newspapers shows Turnbull's personal approval plunging nine points to 46 percent, just as he is struggling to unite a restive party room over energy policy.

 

Although Turbull is still personally more popular than opposition Labor leader Bill Shorten, the poll shows support for his Liberal-National coalition fell four points to 45 percent, 10 points behind Labor and enough for a crushing electoral defeat.

 

It is the widest gap between the parties in 17 months and with an election due before May, it has deepened speculation that Turnbull - who himself ousted his predecessor as party leader because of poor polling - could face an open challenge.

 

Media reported government members were being sounded about support for a challenge to Turnbull's leadership, with Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton seen as the most likely potential challenger, although ministers tried to downplay talk of division.

 

"I don't believe that there'll be a challenge to Malcolm Turnbull's leadership, I believe that the cabinet is 100 percent behind Malcolm Turnbull, including Peter Dutton," Minister for Defence Industry Christopher Pyne told reporters in Canberra.

 

(Reporting by Tom Westbrook; editing by Richard Pullin)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-08-20

[DoctorG]

Labor would be streets ahead if not for their universally distrusted leader Shorten.

[Old Croc]

There's a chance Dutton could be PM by day's end.

 I didn't think they could come up with anyone worse than Abbott.

[zmak]

1 minute ago, Old Croc said:

There's a chance Dutton could be PM by day's end.

 I didn't think they could come up with anyone worse than Abbott.

Abbots terrible lying is worse than trumps. Back flip after back flip and he was national embarrassment on the world stage. Anyone but him !

[stud858]

I think Malcolm wants out anyway. He's had enough.

[car720]

3 hours ago, Old Croc said:

There's a chance Dutton could be PM by day's end.

 I didn't think they could come up with anyone worse than Abbott.

and there in lies the problem because Dutton is an absolute despot.

He dreams of being called King Peter.

[Media1]

If his a banker l would not recommend him lol

[Jai Dee]

A bigoted troll post as well as a number of replies have been removed from this thread.

[rosst]

21 hours ago, DoctorG said:

Labor would be streets ahead if not for their universally distrusted leader Shorten.

The recent snivelling adoption of the UN policy on refugees is the main reason, both him and Bishop need to go, the problem then rears it's ugly head, Labor are worse on border control, Australia is doomed to follow Europe and all the riots. 

[simple1]

1 hour ago, rosst said:

The recent snivelling adoption of the UN policy on refugees is the main reason, both him and Bishop need to go, the problem then rears it's ugly head, Labor are worse on border control, Australia is doomed to follow Europe and all the riots. 

What recent UN Refugee agreement adoption are you referring to? Australia has been heavily criticised by UN for it's Offshore Refugee Processing policy in contravention to prior agreed UN Convention/s.and for offshore detention of children for years

[simple1]

Turnbull has just won a leadership vote against Dutton. Dutton has now resigned from the Front Bench. Just an hour before the vote Dutton denied he was going to try and unseat Turnbull - LOL

[Aussieroaming]

On 8/20/2018 at 9:09 AM, Old Croc said:

There's a chance Dutton could be PM by day's end.

 I didn't think they could come up with anyone worse than Abbott.

Two weeks ago Dutton was on Lombok during the destructive earthquake there. He was immediately evacuated, leaving thousands of Aussies behind to be evacuated as and when help became available. Had he chosen to stay rather than leave and had he then coordinated a timely and safe evacuation of his fellow australian nationals he would have genuinely been seen as a leader and a winner.

 

 By doing nothing but make sure he was safely evacuated he subsequently lost a great opportunity to show true leadership in crisis. He would have looked like gold if he had stayed and taken a leadership role in protecting his nationals in peril overseas, instead he saved his own ass only, something we have come to expect from australian polititians.

 

Bad luck Dutton, you wont get nought now.