news, local-news,

The Jacqui Lambie Network’s popularity appears to have surged in Bass, with the minor party trailing the Greens by only 1 per cent in the primary vote. That is according to a new ReachTEL poll commissioned by left-leaning think tank the Australia Institute. On Tuesday night, 781 Bass voters were polled to gauge who they intended to vote for, as well as how they felt about key issues heading into the state election. Australia Institute Tasmania director Leanne Minshull said the Labor vote had risen from 23.27 per cent to 26.5 per cent in the electorate since the 2014 election. ​”But the real surge sits with the Jacqui Lambie Network on 9.2 per cent,” Ms Minshull said. Male voters took to JLN most strongly, with 14.4 per cent expressing their support for the party. Female voters were less vocal in their support, with 4.4 per cent saying they would use their first preference vote to vote for JLN. The Liberals’ primary vote was recorded at 48 per cent, a 9 per cent drop on the 2014 result. One question that was asked was: “Regardless of who you intend to vote for at the next state election, to what extent do you agree or disagree that Will Hodgman is the best person to take his party to the election?” Bass voters were overwhelmingly convinced that Mr Hodgman was the best person to lead the Liberals to the state election, with 51.1 per cent saying they strongly agreed the Premier was the ideal man for the job. “This is a strong result … and would come as a relief after some poor results in recent preferred Premier polls,” Ms Minshull said. Of those who strongly agreed, however, 78.1 per cent were Liberal voters. Voters were also asked which issue was most likely to determine who they voted for at the election. “Fixing the health system” was most likely to affect who Bass electors voted for, with 37.3 per cent expressing concern about the matter. Only 10.9 per cent of people surveyed said “getting pokies out of pubs and clubs” would determine who they voted for, while 21 per cent said “ensuring a majority government” would be the deciding factor. On Thursday, the Liberals released their own pre-election polling data – conducted by Media Reach - which was also gathered on Tuesday night, and had a sample size of 3000 people statewide. It showed the Liberals with 41.12 per cent of the primary vote, Labor with 34.29 per cent, the Greens with 12.81 per cent and JLN with 6.19 per cent. The Liberals’ poll found that 48.08 per cent of those surveyed thought Mr Hodgman was the "better Premier”, while 41.39 per cent opted for Labor Leader Rebecca White.

https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/kTzsB7nJUhWtdZq6SZfPgB/a771affb-5665-489c-8d22-27e3c82489f0.jpg/r3_0_1198_675_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg