Budget 2014: Joe Hockey warns against delaying budget pain as Coalition suffers slump in polls

Updated

Fighting off dire post-budget polls, Treasurer Joe Hockey has delivered a stern warning to Australians, telling them if they do not want to help fix the budget now, it is "only going to get harder".

Voter support for the Coalition has slumped on the back of last week's federal budget, according to polls published in Fairfax and News Corp papers today.

Mr Hockey says the Government "never thought this budget would be popular", but he has defended it, saying the tax hikes and billions of dollars in cuts are "right for our future".

"We didn't go through all the pain of politics and all the pain of elections and all the dark days of opposition and get back into government to do the things that might please people, to make it easy on the ear," he told a business function in Sydney.

"We did it to make a difference for our nation. That's why we are in the game. We are not in politics to occupy the space and we are not in politics to play silly, populist games.

"We're about building a stronger future for our nation, and sure that is hard, but we are going to do it because we must.

"There is no choice and it is only going to get harder if the Australian people do not want to contribute now and if our political opponents do not want to facilitate the decisions that must be made.

"It gets harder and not easier."

The Nielsen poll in Fairfax newspapers has the Coalition down four points and Labor up four points on a two-party preferred basis, with Labor in front 56 to 44 per cent - tripling its lead from last month's poll.

The Coalition's primary vote has slumped from 40 per cent in early April to 35 per cent - 11 points lower than its vote in the election last September.

And a significant number of voters have switched to the ALP, bringing its primary support up from 34 per cent in April to 40 per cent - a figure not seen against the Labor Party's name in a national poll for years.

On the Prime Minister's performance, Nielsen says 34 per cent approve of Tony Abbott's efforts - a 10-point slump - while approval of Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's performance is up to 47 per cent.

Mr Abbott's disapproval rating climbed to 62 per cent - 12 points higher than at last month's poll.

On the budget, 63 per cent of people said it was not fair, and 53 per cent thought it was bad for Australia, against 42 per cent who believed it was good for the country.

The Newspoll published in The Australian has similarly dire numbers for the Government, showing Labor in front 55 to 45 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.

And for the first time, voters prefer Mr Shorten as prime minister over Mr Abbott, giving him a 10-point lead in the better prime minister stakes at 44 to 34 per cent - a six-point drop for the PM since last month.

The Nielsen poll has a margin of error of 2.6 per cent and Newspoll's margin of error is 3 per cent.

Abbott says cut will get country back on track

Mr Abbott acknowledged the poll hit, saying he did not underestimate the fact that "no-one likes to pay more".

"There are some very tough decisions in this budget, but we are not doing them to make ourselves popular," he said.

"We are doing them to get our country back on track."

He said he hoped the measures were in the "tradition" of the first budget handed down by the Howard-Costello government in 1996.

"Every government that brings in a tough budget suffers a hit in the polls," Mr Abbott said.

"If you go back to 1996 - the last tough budget - the Howard government, of which I was then a pretty junior member, suffered a massive hit in the polls."

But the poll results from both Newspoll and Fairfax Herald-AGB McNair a week after the August 20, 1996 budget was handed down paint a different story, instead showing a boost for the Howard government.

The Coalition's primary support climbed three points and Mr Howard's satisfaction rating also rose from 51 to 53.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said today's poll showed that "Australians are angry like they've never been before".

"Tony Abbott has just made up this complete and grotesque budget fairytale to say that Australians were on notice before the last election," he said.

"Tony Abbott - you're on notice. If you think you're going to get away with your broken promises and your lies, the Australian people will send you a distinctly different message."

Premiers maintain their rage against budget cuts

Mr Abbott's poor poll numbers were published a day after state and territory leaders met in Sydney for emergency talks on $80 billion in budget cuts for schools and hospitals over the next decade.

The leaders say the cuts will begin to affect state budgets from July and are demanding an urgent meeting with the Prime Minister.

Victorian Premier Denis Napthine says his state will lose funding from July 1 for hospitals, preventive health and measures to help pensioners and other concession card holders.

And New South Wales Premier Mike Baird said close to 300 hospital beds may close if the cuts go ahead.

South Australia's Labor Premier Jay Weatherill says the Federal Government needs to scratch the budget and start again.

"Tony Abbott and the Federal Liberal Government have united the nation against these cuts. They've even managed to unite a group of chief ministers and premiers against these cuts," he said.

"We are steadfast in our resistance to these cuts."

However, Mr Abbott insists the biggest change is a slowdown in the rate of growth for Commonwealth funding for schools and hospitals from 2017.

Visiting a medical research institute in Brisbane this morning as part of a post-budget tour, Mr Abbott rejected the calls for a meeting.

"I absolutely appreciate that just at the moment the premiers are fighting their corner, as they should, but I've got to fight the nation's corner," he said.

"If you are borrowing to pay the interest on the borrowings, you are stuffed. That is the situation that our country had been put into by the former government."

A one-on-one meeting this morning with Queensland Premier Campbell Newman appears to have mollified some of the concerns about the cuts from that state.

"We've had a rational, sensible discussion," Mr Newman said.

"I've clearly articulated the problems that I have with the budget cuts in the next few years and the long-term impacts on health and education.

"Now, I believe we can work through these things."

The premiers - Mr Newman in particular - have accused the Abbott Government of trying to "wedge" them into asking for an increase to the rate of the GST - a tax collected by the Commonwealth but distributed to the states.

But Mr Napthine, who faces an election in November, says he will not canvass that option.

"We don't believe that there is any need for an additional GST on Victorians. We don't support an increase in the GST. We don't support a broadening of the base," he told AM.

Topics: budget, federal-government, government-and-politics, australia

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