The Coalition has so far delivered dithering and muddled policy instead of the methodical administration it promised

Despite its protestations, the Abbott government’s first 100 days have been anything but methodical and calm, and Tuesday’s Newspoll confirms that voters have noticed the confusion.

They expected, for example, a government that would have a clear plan to deal with Holden’s decision about whether to leave the country – either to offer the assistance that might prevent it or to explain why the cost of prevention was not in the national interest. They certainly expected something a bit more decisive than a deflection of blame and internal divisions on public display when thousands of jobs are at stake.

This early after a change of government, and particularly at this time of the year, people are usually inclined to switch from politics to the cricket, to give the new lot a go and check back a bit later. But Tuesday’s Newspoll, confirming the trend in the earlier Nielsen poll, shows voters have noticed that Tony Abbott and his team are not panning out quite as expected.

It records a fall of 7 percentage points in the Coalition's primary vote since October, putting Labor ahead 52% to 48% after preferences are distributed and taking the Coalition to its lowest two-party-preferred vote since 2011.

The business community, which had such high expectations of the new conservative government, is also privately starting to express alarm.

And even as the Newspoll was released, the drift was playing out in new ways.

If the government had taken a clear decision that it was not going to provide more assistance to Holden, that Australians would be better off using the billions of dollars it gives the car industry for other purposes and importing cheaper cars, it could have made that argument.

But it hasn’t. For a long time the company has been clear about what it would need to continue Australian production and for just as long the Coalition has been unwilling to tackle its deep internal divisions on the issue and say whether it would be willing to pay. Before the election it papered over the divisions by saying it would refer the issue of long-term assistance to a Productivity Commission review.

After the election it set up the review with a reporting date well after the company insisted it needed an answer and then publicly called on Holden to hurry up and make up its mind before the inquiry had reported. Industry minister Ian Macfarlane is clearly struggling to win internal support for his plan to rearrange the existing Automotive Transformation Scheme money to develop a new car plan and keep the company in Australia.

Contrary to reports about his intended testimony, Holden Australia managing director Mike Devereaux insisted on Tuesday no decision had been made, but the company would need continuing subsidies. That really demands a more definitive response from the government than its public platitudes about the need to make the whole economy stronger.

Similarly, the financial plight of Qantas is in a state of drift. There are very good arguments for a government to refuse to spend taxpayers’ money propping up the airline. There may also be good arguments for opening the company up to higher levels of foreign investment, but Labor and the Greens have made it clear the necessary legislative change will not get through the parliament any time soon. But the government is not making those arguments, not forcibly and collectively – although the treasurer, Joe Hockey, has given some broad hints about where his sentiments lie. Instead of clear direction and leadership the government has said it wants a “national debate”.

Lined up with the deeply damaging and mishandled backflip on the Gonski schools funding in the face of a public revolt, the ludicrous secrecy surrounding the implementation of the new “border protection” policies and the confusing rationale for the Graincorp foreign investment decision, the government may have to rethink its lines about how it would be offering neither “excuses” nor “surprises”.

The absence of clear messages has made it difficult for the coalition to control the political conversation, and its early efforts to do so by keeping quiet and hoping politics would disappear from the headlines were always destined to fail.

The government has been busy implementing promises, setting up the commission of audit, putting together the mid-year economic forecast document, setting up reviews into financial services and competition policy and presenting legislation to remove the carbon and mining taxes, as it said it would.

But voters thought they had elected a government that – when faced with the possible demise of the Australian car industry and serious financial difficulties in the national airline – would have something a bit more decisive to say than “what do you guys think?” or “whoops”.