Only 18% think Abbott should stay in politics and be given a ministry, as Labor pulls ahead to 53-47, two-party-preferred

The latest Guardian Essential poll has found nearly half of voters (43%) think Tony Abbott should resign from the parliament as the former prime minister continues to cause ongoing instability in the Coalition.

The survey, conducted online from 29 June to 3 July, found only 18% thought Abbott should stay in office and be given a place in the Turnbull ministry. A further 14% thought he should stay on the backbench and 24% didn’t know.

Among Coalition voters, the poll of 1,025 respondents found 35% thought Abbott should resign and leave parliament while 25% thought he should stay and be given a ministry. A further 19% thought Abbott should stay on the backbench and 22% didn’t know.

It’s the Coalition’s break-a-glass emergency plan: if all else fails, kill Bill | Peter Lewis Read more

The polls showed Labor widened its lead over the Coalition 53% to 47% on a two-party-preferred basis, up from 52% to 48% recorded for the past four weeks. The primary votes remained largely unchanged, with Labor sitting on 36%, Liberals on 35%, the National party on 3%, the Greens on 11%, Nick Xenophon on 3% and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation on 7%.

Twelve months on from the last election, support for marriage equality remains at 63% with those opposed at 25% compared with July 2016, when the corresponding figures were 58% and 28%.

But support remains strong for a plebiscite on same-sex marriage, with a total of 59% in support of a national vote and only 29% in support of a vote in parliament by politicians without a plebiscite, while 12% don’t know. Twelve months ago 25% thought same-sex marriage should be decided by a vote in parliament compared with 60% who wanted a national vote.



On home ownership, unsurprisingly it still rates as important for financial security, with 89% rating it as important and only 8% rating it as unimportant.

A total of 66% of those polled believe housing is unaffordable in their area for someone on an average income compared to 25% who consider prices affordable. Those figures are the same for Labor (67%), Coalition (67%) voters, Greens voters (67%) but slightly less for other voters (63%).

A majority of voters (73%) also consider that housing has become less affordable in their area in the past few years and again, the figures show little difference between supporters of various parties. Lack of affordability was not just an issue in the cities as a majority of regional voters (66%) also considered their area had become less affordable.

Most voters support real-time political donations reporting – Guardian Essential poll Read more

As to what the policy solution is, the poll found highest support (74%) for limiting foreign house buyers, two months after the Coalition introduced a crackdown on foreign ownership in the budget, including charging foreign buyers who leave real estate empty and limiting foreign buyers in new developments.

The second highest support (56%) was for allowing older residents to downsize their homes - another measure from the budget which allows residents to contribute to superannuation using the proceeds of downsizing.

There was also support for a ban on interest only loans for property investors (44%), allowing access by young buyers to their superannuation (44%) and removing negative gearing tax concessions (43%). The Coalition ruled out allowing young people to access their superannuation prior to the budget and have consistently ruled out negative gearing changes though Labor announced it would limit negative gearing to new properties more than two years ago.