View From The Hill: New Poll Brings Dreadful News For Ley, Another Boost For One Nation

(MENAFN- The Conversation) Opposition leader Sussan Ley has taken another big polling hit, as defence spokesman Angus Taylor scrambles to get the numbers for a tilt at her position.

With Liberals arriving in Canberra for the parliamentary sitting beginning Tuesday, the Australian Financial Review's Redbridge/Accent Research poll found the combined vote of the (now split) Liberals and Nationals down to a parlous 19%, a fall of 7 points since December.

The poll shows One Nation and Pauline Hanson surging ahead of the vote of the fractured Liberals and Nationals. One Nation is now on 26%, up 9 points, and Pauline Hanson has a much better net favourability rating than Ley.

Ley's net favourability is minus 32, a worsening of 12 points. Hanson's net favourability has improved from minus 19 to minus 3.

Ley rates 9% as preferred prime minister (down 3), with Anthony Albanese on 37% (down 4).

Labor's primary vote is down a point to 34%; the Greens are down 2 points to 11%. Labor's two-party lead is 56-44%.

The poll was taken between the day the Coalition split and Thursday, the day of the widely-publicised meeting of right-wing heavyweights to talk about whether Taylor or Andrew Hastie should be the one to challenge Ley.

With Hastie declaring on Friday he would not run for leader, the way was cleared for Taylor as the sole conservative candidate, but he has to gather more solid numbers.

In a bid to appeal to Hastie supporters, Taylor has posted on social media that Hastie is“a patriot committed to tackling the big problems our country faces” and said he shared many of his views.

The poll will feed into the internal campaign against Ley, but party sources on Sunday said they were not expecting things to come to a head this week. A move next week is considered possible.

Taylor is in a bizarre position. He is a member of Ley's shadow cabinet and so supposed to be loyal to her. But he is semi-openly rounding up support for a challenge, including attending Thursday's meeting with Hastie to talk about who should be the conservative candidate.

Liberal shadow ministers struggled to put the best face on things on the Sunday TV shows.

Asked if she expected a challenge on Tuesday, Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston, a close ally of Ley's, said

Shadow Treasurer Ted O'Brien told the ABC the convention was that if someone did not support the leader“they step aside. Angus hasn't done that. So my running assumption is he continues to support Sussan Ley in her leadership.”

On the prospect of a challenge he said,“I don't believe we're walking into a period where there will be”. But he added,“I don't know the future either”.

On Monday, the Nationals leader David Littleproud is set to see off a spill move by backbencher Colin Boyce, who is highly critical of how Littleproud handled events that split the Coalition.

Ley and Littlepoud are expected to meet this week to explore if there is any prospect of putting the Coalition together again. It seems unlikely these talks will achieve much, given the wider instability.

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