Voters deserting Liberals as support for One Nation surges

A new poll released today has revealed voters are abandoning the federal opposition, with support for embattled Liberal leader Sussan Ley crashing.

The primary vote for the Coalition has slumped to 24 per cent, while Labor is at 36 per cent, according to a Newspoll published in The Australian.

The lack of support for the major political parties coincides with a surge for the populist party One Nation, which polled at 15 per cent for the primary vote.

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Labor maintained its 57 to 43 per cent margin on two-party-preferred vote, the voter survey found.

Ley's approval rating collapsed to minus 33 per cent, putting her standing among voters with some of the worst figures for opposition leaders.

In 2015, the then Labor leader recorded minus 38 per cent, while the Liberal leader in 1990, Andrew Peacock slumped to minus 44.

The dire results for the Coalition follow weeks of infighting within opposition ranks over energy policy and the departure of shadow ministers Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Andrew Hastie.

Pressure on Ley intensified last weekend when the Coalition's junior partner, the Nationals, formally ditched a pledge to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

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The move, on the eve of the penultimate sitting week in Parliament this year, heaps more pressure on Ley to keep the opposition united.

Last month she was accused of lacking policy initiatives with her criticism of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for wearing a T-shirt of one of his favourite bands, Joy Division, when he flew back from a US visit.

She claimed it showed a "profound failure of judgement" to support a band that got its name from "a wing of a Nazi concentration camp where Jewish women were forced into sexual slavery", particularly "at a time when Jewish Australians are facing a rise in antisemitism".

The origins of Joy Division's name have been well-known for some time now.

The band discovered the name from House of Dolls, a novella written by Holocaust survivor Yehiel De-Nur.

Joy Division split in 1980 before the band reformed as New Order.

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