The ACT Labor Party did the wise thing to replace Rosemary Follett with Andrew Whitecross, according to the results of the latest Canberra Times-Datacol opinion poll.
The poll was taken before the Federal election last week, when Ms Follett was Leader of the Opposition. It showed that Chief Minister Kate Carnell was the preferred Chief Minister by 48 per cent against 38 per cent who preferred Ms Follett.
The poll shows, however, that the Labor Party has a big task ahead to dent Ms Carnell’s popularity. Voters were asked to rate key ACT politicians from very bad, bad, middling, good to very good. Ms Carnell topped the poll with an average of 2.86. She easily had the highest very good rating (11). The independents came next with Paul Osborne on 2.80 and Michael Moore on 2.70. Urban Services Minister Tony De Domenico came last of those rated at 2.19.
TAKE IN CLACK……
Mr Whitecross is not well known and voters have a middling view of him; very few rating him as very bad or very good. The poll was taken before he was leader but after speculation that he might take the leadership.
Opinion about Ms Carnell has polarised in the year since she took government. A year ago she had a 50 per cent approval and 33 per cent disapproval. She has lost two point from the approval rating and added 12 to the disapproval rate.
The voter-satisfaction, approval and preferred chief minister figures are very good for Ms Carnell in the face of a year in government with issues like the industrial dispute (during which the poll was taken), Jindalee, Acton and the corporatising of ACTEW.
Ms Carnell gets more support from males (51) than females (45) and the 55 plus (57) than those younger (46). That correlates with party voting trends seen in opinion polling before the federal election.
On the Opposition side, voter-satisfaction with Wayne Berry has improved substantially over the past year, from the lowest of nine MLAs polled to a middling position. It seems Mr De Domenico has replaced him as the MLA voters love to hate.
The Greens have polled badly. They have not made themselves well known and voter-satisfaction with them is at the lower end. Lucy Horodny was the least well known of the nine MLAs in the poll. Independent Paul Osborne has done well on that score. He is known by 90 per cent of voters.
The poll shows that Ms Carnell has upset those who work in the public sector. Among ACT employees 29 prefer Ms Carnell to 59 preferring Ms Follett as Chief Minister. But Ms Carnell is preferred among Commonwealth employees 46-40 and the private sector 55-32. The rest are uncommitted.
Both the poll about ACT matters and the one about Federal matters reveal that ACT employees are more pro-Labor than Commonwealth employees.