Vote Compass: Australians have no regrets about Tony Abbott's removal

Updated

Australians remain relaxed and comfortable about the Liberal Party's decision to change prime ministers from Tony Abbott to Malcolm Turnbull, Vote Compass data shows.

Eight months on from the first-term leadership spill, an overwhelming majority of voters said the switch was the right decision.

Three questions related to Mr Abbott's sacking in September 2015 were added to the Vote Compass survey for its launch on Sunday, May 8.

Results from all three clearly showed that voters still backed the change, even as Mr Abbott's dumping continued to haunt Mr Turnbull on the campaign trail.

Only 13 per cent of Coalition voters said they were less likely to vote for the Coalition under Mr Turnbull than they would have been under Mr Abbott.

Strong support for the change to Mr Turnbull cut across almost every demographic group, including voter intention, age, geography and gender.

The only clearly identifiable pocket of stronger public backing for Mr Abbott was seen in those who self-identified as being ideologically right-wing.

But even among that group, a majority said the change of leadership was the correct choice.

The same three questions were asked in 2013 about the pre-election switch of Labor leader from Julia Gillard back to Kevin Rudd.

The public's answers that time were considerably more mixed, although Labor voters strongly backed the move.

The findings are based on 149,321 respondents who participated in Vote Compass from May 8 to May 13, 2016. The data has been weighted to ensure the sample reflects the Australian population. [ Read the Vote Compass data FAQ ]

Topics: federal-elections, turnbull-malcolm, abbott-tony, liberals, australia

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