PREMIER Mike Baird has a fight on his hands at the March 28 state election with his lead over Labor narrowing to 53-47 on a two-party-preferred basis in the latest Galaxy Daily Telegraph poll.

The result is the worst for the state government since just after Barry O’Farrell resigned as Premier over the Grangegate affair, in which he misled the Independent Commission Against Corruption, with the same result recorded last May.

The primary vote for the Coalition fell from 45 to 43 since last month, with Labor stagnant on 36 per cent. The Greens dropped from 11 to 10 per cent and other parties and independents are up from eight points to 11.

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The result, down from two Galaxy polls in January showing a 54-46 lead for the Coalition after a previous 56-44 poll last November, will lead to inevitable speculation the performance of Prime Minister Tony Abbott and federal Liberal troubles are contributing to poor polls.

The poll represents an 11 per cent swing from Barry O’Farrell’s 2011 election landslide result and if delivered on a statewide basis would lead to Labor winning 16 seats.

The party would then have 39 seats in the legislative assembly to the government’s 51, just five seats away from forcing the Coalition into minority government.

media_camera Premier Mike Baird with Prime Minister Tony Abbott / Picture: Brett Costello

In more bad news for the government, both Greens and Labor sources said yesterday the two parties were close to a preference deal which would see the Greens preference Labor in many marginal seats.

Asked if the Abbott government’s performance made people more or less likely to vote for Mike Baird, 20 per cent said more likely, 32 per cent said less likely and 41 per cent said it would not influence their vote.

Showing the unpopularity of the pledge to lease 49 per cent of the electricity network to the private sector to raise $20 billion for infrastructure, more voters preferred raising taxes to pay for the projects than privatisation.

media_camera NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley / Picture: Toby Zerna

Asked which way they preferred the state government raise the funding, 35 per cent said raise taxes, 26 per cent said lease 49 per cent of the power network and 16 per cent said increase debt and lose the state’s AAA credit rating with the remaining 23 per cent uncommitted.

In the better premier stakes, Mike Baird continues to hold a comfortable lead of 46 per cent — slipping 1 per cent since January — but Opposition Leader Luke Foley was up by 6 per cent to 22 per cent.

Foley’s rating as preferred premier is higher than predecessor John Robertson, who rated 18 per cent to Mr Baird’s 49 per cent in November.

Galaxy’s David Briggs said it was a “potential concern” for the government that the numbers were narrowing but the Coalition was still “sitting pretty comfortably” with a “bit of a buffer”.

“The one difference with Queensland and Victorian elections is they have a premier who is more popular than the leader of the opposition,” Mr Briggs said. The Galaxy poll taken last Wednesday and Thursday nights was of 923 voters across NSW.

media_camera Premier Mike Baird / Picture: Warren Thomson

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MORE than half of voters surveyed­ in a Galaxy Daily Telegraph poll either support scrapping the NSW upper house or are uncommitted to its future.

The poll found that 35 per cent of people supported removing the NSW legislative council, while a further 24 per cent were uncommitted.

However, despite concerns that the upper house was holding up government business in NSW, 41 per cent of those surveyed­ were against any move to shut it down.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the Coalition government’s agenda to get its sale of the electricity networks through the upper house, there was more Coalition support for getting rid of the house.

Forty-four per cent of Coalition­ voters supported the abolition of the chamber compared­ with 35 per cent who were opposed.

Among Labor voters, there were 35 per cent in favour and 41 per cent opposed.

The legislative council costs $24 million a year to run, including members’ salaries. It has 42 members, each of whom receive an electorate allowance even though they do not have an electorate.

Queensland, by contrast, has a single-chamber­ parliament.

The upper house can “call for papers” whereby it can demand government documents and can set up parliamentary committees.

Last term it held up what business regards as critical planning reforms for the state.

The Shooters and Fishers, who hold the balance of power, are threatening to unite with Labor and the Greens to block plans to privatise electricity to pay for infrastructure.

The government is hoping that it might be able to win enough seats on March 28 so that it and the Christian Democrats­ are able to pass the electricity privatisation.