Julia Gillard is engaged in the most prized foreign assignment for an Australian Prime Minister - the lavish hospitality of an American president in Washington.
But at home opinion polls are sending the much less hospitable message that Ms Gillard is Prime Minister in name only, that voters want her out of the job.
By any measure, an election right now would see Liberal Leader Tony Abbott replace her. Labor has hit a record low in its primary result in polling.
Julia Gillard two weeks ago announced a determination to bring in a carbon price, to force reductions in emissions, by 2012 without being able to provide the detail of the scheme.
Mr Abbott was willing to fill in the information gap with his own interpretation of carbon pricing and the Government has been on the defensive ever since.
But it has not been just a debate on climate change. Mr Abbott has made it about Ms Gillard herself and opinion surveys are now benchmarking the success of his campaign.
It is a savage electoral reckoning. Even Kevin Rudd is preferred as leader over her.
Two polls in two days registered the extraordinary hostility roused by the Opposition over Ms Gillard’s broken promise on what Tony Abbott has successfully marketed as a “climate tax”.
An Essential Media survey found 59 per cent of voters believed Ms Gillard had gone back on her word; 48 per cent opposed her broadly outlined carbon pricing scheme.
And this morning Newspoll reports findings that are even worse for the Gillard office. For starters, Newspoll found that 53 per cent of voters were against a carbon pricing scheme.
Ms Gillard’s satisfaction rating has slumped to 39 per cent, and her dissatisfaction level is for the first time just over 51 per cent.
It is a quirk of polling that her satisfaction/dissatisfaction ratings of 39 per cent and 51 per cent are exactly repeated for Tony Abbott.
And Ms Gillard remains preferred Prime Minister over Mr Abbott, 45 per cent to 36 per cent after a serious decline over the past two weeks.
But the polling, basically a running commentary by the electorate, is making clear that the Government has failed in selling its climate change program, and in particular has not convinced households they would be protected from major increases in expenses.
And in what would surely be the most personal sting for Ms Gillard, her former leader Kevin Rudd, now a rarely-at-home Foreign Minister, is considered best to head the ALP by 44 per cent to her 37 per cent.
Senior Labor figures are talking of a long battle ahead and the policy strength of the Government’s carbon reduction program compared to the Coalition’s Direct Action plan, which would involve buying carbon entitlements from industries with taxpayer money.
They believe they have the might of logic and, despite the broken promise claims, the consistency of purpose which Mr Abbott could not claim.
However, there will be others who see the Government starting the race of its life, but giving the Coalition a massive electoral start.
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From: Gillard’s guide to regaining her mojo
stevie p says:
Australians, as Ms Gillard keps telling us, are open, frank, embrace change, look the world in the eye, are creative etc etc etc. They are basically also a pretty honest mob of people who don't like being lied to. If she thinks this will go away and gradually ease over the long term, forget it. Australians… [read more]From: Families have dined out on the public long enough
Zeta says:
Where are these people eating, Sizzler? I eat out more than I eat in and I've never noticed children in restaurants. Maybe I'm just going to nicer restaurants. If you live in the suburbs, and you actually eat in the suburbs, I imagine there are children around, but you get what you deserve, because you… [read more]Gentle jabs to the ribs
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