Coalition holds a narrow one per cent lead over Labor in the last poll before New South Wales votes in the country’s biggest state election
- Gladys Berejiklian’s Liberal party holds a narrow one per cent lead over Labor
- The Newspoll was released on the eve of the country’s largest state election
- NSW residents will head to polling booths between 8am and 6pm on Saturday
Gladys Berejiklian’s Liberal party holds a narrow one per cent lead over Labor in the last poll before the country’s largest state election.
Residents in NSW will head to polling booths between 8am and 6pm on Saturday to determine which major party will form parliament.
On the eve of the state election, a NSW Newspoll for The Weekend Australian showed the Coalition were clutching onto a 51-49 per cent two-party-preferred lead over Labor.
The lead is the Coalition’s best Newspoll result in two years, representing a 3.3 per cent swing away from the government compared with its 2015 election result.
Gladys Berejiklian’s (pictured) Liberal party holds a narrow one per cent lead over Labor in the last poll before the country’s largest state election
If uniform, it would see Premier Gladys Berejiklian lose six seats and she would need one independent’s support from the crossbench to form government.
She would become the first popularly elected female premier in NSW history.
If the Coalition win on Saturday, it would be the first time since 1971 that a Liberal Party-led government in NSW had won a third consecutive term.
But the Newspoll also found the Coalition has lost support outside Sydney, with a six per cent slump in primary-vote support to 39 per cent, deadlocking it with Labor at 50-50 on a two-party-preferred basis.
Ms Berejiklian leads Labor leader Michael Daley 43 to 35 in premier stakes but 22 per cent of voters remained uncommitted.
Mr Daley’s disapproval rating rose nine points from 38 per cent to 47 and his satisfaction rating dropped five points from 37 to 32.
Ms Berejiklian leads Labor leader Michael Daley (pictured) 43-35 in premier stakes but 22 per cent of voters remained uncommitted
Ms Berejiklian emerged victorious at People’s Forum on Wednesday where she debated key policies with Mr Daley.
From an audience of 100 undecided voters, Ms Berejiklian managed to draw 50 in favour of the Coalition while the opposition leader only managed to draw 25 votes. The final 25 were undecided.
A series of blunders from Mr Daley helped lift Ms Berejiklian to the top as the Labor leader drew blanks on a number of his party’s policies.
The debate came after a September 2018 video of Mr Daley surfaced, where he claimed young people were being forced to ‘flee’ Sydney because educated Asian migrants were stealing their jobs.
A bad week for Mr Daley also hurt Labor’s primary vote, now at 35 per cent.
The Coalition’s statewide primary vote is up one to 41 per cent, with the Greens steady at 10 per cent and ‘others’, which includes independents, One Nation and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party, also steady at 14 per cent.
Residents in NSW will head to polling booths between 8am and 6pm on Saturday to determine which major party will form government
Ms Berejiklian and the Coalition government have been slammed by Labor for their controversial plan to knock down Allianz Stadium in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
Major demolition works have already begun on the stadium, which will be bulldozed and replaced with a new one at a cost of $729 million.
Mr Daley has been pushing to stop the works until at least after the election, on the basis that if he is elected he will refurbish the stadium at a lower cost.
‘It will be close,’ Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.
‘We need to finish the projects we’ve started, we need to begin the new ones.’
Ms Berejiklian has also come under fire for her hard-line stance against drug testing following a spate of drug-related deaths at music festivals.
A number of music festivals have since been cancelled due to high costs of new rules governing the events, including increased security.