Hanson keeps Taylor in the cold as poll delivers good and bad news for Labor

Aussie voters believe Labor is failing the country on immigration, but heavily back falling house prices, as Pauline Hanson continues to solidify her position as de facto opposition leader.

The latest Resolve Political Monitor poll, conducted for Nine newspapers, found that Anthony Albanese remained Australia’s preferred prime minister at 32 per cent, followed by Hanson at 26 per cent, and then Liberal leader Angus Taylor on 19 per cent.

Strikingly, the poll also found more than a quarter of respondents - 26 per cent - had formed no strong opinion about Taylor in his time as opposition leader.

By contrast, just 10 per cent of people were unsure whether to rate Albanese’s performance as good or bad, and 14 per cent were unsure about Hanson.

Taylor does remain the pick of the litter for preferred Liberal leaders, with 30 per cent nominating him over nearest rival Andrew Hastie (10 per cent), but more than half the respondents (56 per cent) were undecided on the issue.

While Albanese continues to lead the pack of preferred prime ministers, voters are torn over his government’s policies.

The poll found 54 per cent of respondents thought the government was not handling immigration well, while 35 per cent of respondents - the largest segment - said Hanson and One Nation were best placed to manage the issue.

Read more

Pauline Hanson questions compulsory super: ‘It’s their money’

On housing, 60 per cent of people support falling prices, while support for restricting negative gearing has risen to 35 per cent, with 20 per cent opposed.

But Resolve pollster Jim Reed said Labor weren’t getting a lot of credit for the easing property market, due to the government’s unwillingness to concede that had been the aim of their about-face on property tax reform in the budget.

“It seems strange that the government would not take a bow for taking some of the investor heat out of the housing market, and only take the pain of the broken promise, but who knows where this goes,” he told Nine newspapers.

The government is also likely to welcome a finding from the poll that 36 per cent of people nominated the cost of living as their top policy concern - down from 45 per cent the month before.