Malcolm Turnbull’s Political Misjudgment

The latest Newspoll putting the Coalition ahead of Labor on a two party-preferred basis for the first time since 2006 is further evidence against Malcolm Turnbull’s claim that opposition to the Rudd-Turnbull ETS would lead the Coalition to electoral oblivion. It is noteworthy that the Coalition now matches Labor on the question of who will ‘best handle the issue of climate change’, having previously trailed Labor on the issue by as much as 27 points. The poll results demonstrate that public opinion on a given issue is not independent of the stance taken by the opposition, a political understanding seemingly lost on Malcolm.

Michael Barone notes that social democrats are in trouble across the Anglo-American world.  He attributes this to their abandonment of the market reformist tradition that previously informed social democratic parties, including Australian Labor. As former federal Labor minister Gary Johns has noted, Rudd has always been outside this market reformist tradition.

posted on 03 May 2010 by skirchner in Opinion Polls, Politics

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