Support for Australian govt collapses to 3-year low: Poll

Canberra, Jan 31 (IANS) Popular support for the Australian government has slumped to its lowest level in more than three years, according to a latest poll.According to the first Newspoll of 2022, which was published by News Corp Australia on Sunday night, the opposition Labor Party leads the governing Coalition 56-44 on a two-party preferred basis, reports Xinhua news agency.It represents a six-point shift from Labor's 53-47 lead in the last poll of 2021 and represents the opposition's biggest lead over the government since September 2018.The poll found that primary support for Labor has increased to 41 per cent while the Coalition's vote fell to 34 per cent -- the lowest figure since August 2018 when Prime Minister Scott Morrison deposed his predecessor Malcolm Turnbul as the Coalition leader.The poll revealed widespread frustration with the federal government's handling of the Omicron variant led Covid-19 wave.Morrison's net approval rating, which is calculated by subtracting the disapproval rating from the approval rating, collapsed 11 points to -19, the lowest since early 2020.His lead over Labor leader Anthony Albanese as voters' preferred PM fell from 9 points in December to just 2.Despite the poor result for the Coalition, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg declared Morrison was the right person to lead the government to the election."Scott Morrison has done a really really good job, in very, very difficult times and he will be the first Prime Minister to go to an election after serving a full term since John Howard," he told the media on Monday.
--IANS ksk/

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