‘Labor dysfunction’ fears: Bill Shorten fails to cut through with middle-Australia

Perth : Tony Abbott may be personally unpopular among middle-ground voters but the group that broke from the ALP at the 2013 election is not coming back to Bill Shorten, with many regarding him as a ranting puppet obsessed with political point scoring, and lacking in charisma.
Exclusive focus group testing of the two leaders’ standing among former Labor voters who switched to Tony Abbott in 2013 has found Mr Shorten is regarded with disdain among the very electors he must win back but who currently see him as unknown, wishy-washy, and unable to cut through.The confronting findings are among those gleaned from focus groups convened for Fairfax Media by the experienced political market researcher, Tony Mitchelmore.
Using identical methodologies to those approved by the main parties, the groups met for two post-budget sessions in Melbourne and another two in Sydney, to gauge the mood of the section of the electorate regarded as central to the election hopes of both sides.
It found Mr Abbott continues to be regarded very poorly by swinging voters – even though all of them involved in the focus groups had backed him in 2013. They prefer either the former Liberal leader and now Communications Minister, Malcolm Turnbull or Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.
But Mr Abbott, who has the distinction of having been elected while unpopular, enjoys a critical advantage over all of the alternatives, including Mr Shorten: incumbency.
According to Mr Mitchelmore, the main attribute voters want out of Canberra after the global financial crisis and the disastrous internal manoeuvrings that dogged the Labor years, is stability.”If the question is, ‘Who is your preferred leader out of Bishop, Turnbull, or Abbott?’, then Abbott is a long way last,” Mr Mitchelmore reported.
“[However] if the question is ‘who do you want, Turnbull, Bishop, or stability?’ stability wins.”That finding is a double-blow for Mr Shorten because it shows voters favour keeping Mr Abbott in place – even though he is not well liked – and because it stems from still-powerful voter associations between the Labor leader and the toxic rivalry of the Kevin Rudd/Julia Gillard years.