NSW Labor’s Kristina Keneally is dominating the Liberal’s Barry O’Farrell as preferred premier for the state, but seems destined to be a popular leader of a losing party if the latest Newspoll numbers hold true.
Kristina Keneally has clawed back the preferred premier position for the NSW Labor party from Barry O’Farrell, recording a stellar rise in support, with 45 percent of respondents to the latest Newspoll preferring the NSW Premier an improvement of 10 percentage points from when she took the top job in December last year, while only 30 percent preferred NSW Liberal leader Barry O’Farrell.
The trend is mirrored in the approval ratings, with Keneally surging to 47 percent approval from 34 for Nathan Rees in November last year, with O’Farrell sliding to 41 from 44 over the same period.
The NSW Labor party is still destined to lose the next election despite Keneally’s surge in popularity, with Labor’s primary vote up one percentage point to 31 percent. With the Liberal party vote slipping to 37 percent from 39 percent and the nationals unchanged at 5 percent, with the Coalition vote slipping by a corresponding two points.
The Greens are up two points to 14 percent, which is more consistent with their long term trend line, with those polled showing a surge in support for the party at the end of last year, likely as a result of Federal issues like Kevin Rudd’s emissions trading scheme.
