More than half of Australians blame Anthony Albanese for their soaring electricity bills, a new poll has found.
The polling by RedBridge showed about 53 per cent of voters strongly agreed or agreed that Labor’s renewable energy policy had pushed their power bills up.
It also found Opposition leader Peter Dutton‘s pro-nuclear stance had failed to win voters over, with the number of Aussies who believe nuclear is unsafe increasing from 35 per cent to 39 per cent over the past year.
The proportion of voters who believe Australia’s production of nuclear energy would fall has increased by just one per cent from 37 per cent to 38 per cent.
It comes after it was announced last week power bills would increase by almost 10 per cent – another blow to Aussies who are already battling a cost of living crisis.
Electricity and gas bills have skyrocketed in the past three years despite Labor promising at the 2022 federal election it would lower power bills by $275 by 2025.
In the latest poll of 2,000 voters, Labor came in slightly ahead of the Coalition on a two party preferred basis, 51 to 49.
RedBridge director Tony Barry said the Coalition needed to ‘own the economic narrative’ to win voters ahead of the election.
The polling by RedBridge showed about 53 per cent of voters strongly agreed or agreed that the Labor government’s renewable energy policy had pushed their power bills up
‘The Coalition needs to move the conversation back to its key equities of economic management and they can’t allow Labor to own economic management for free,’ Mr Barry told the Herald Sun.
‘If the Coalition is going to get to 76 seats (in the House of Representatives) it needs to own the economic narrative, they can’t expect to critique their way into government.’
Kosmos Samaras, a RedBridge director and a former Labor strategist, said Labor’s efforts to move to renewables would deliver cheaper electricity had fallen flat.
‘Basically people are blaming governments and it doesn’t matter who is in government they are going to wear the brunt of voters stressed about power bills,’ Mr Samaras said.
The former strategist predicted a complex election where the two main parties might race to 70 seats in the House of Representatives rather than 76, due to preferences likely playing a key role.
This means the results could be reminiscent of the 2022 federal election, when more than 130 seats were decided by preferences – voters’ next preferred candidate after a candidate is eliminated.
‘It’s going to be the most complicated federal election since federation, so it’s going to be interesting,’ Mr Samaras said.
The poll also revealed 57 per cent of Labor voters believed Australia was headed in the right direction, while 72 per cent of Coalition voters believed the country was heading in the wrong direction.
