ANDREW GREENE: At last, the Coalition has found its mongrel

You could be forgiven for thinking Angus Taylor is on borrowed time as Opposition Leader, as the Coalition generally struggles to make electoral inroads against the Government and it battles a political surge from Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.

The Liberal leader has for weeks also been dragged into the messy proceedings at the Independent Commission Against Corruption hearings in Sydney, while support for his party continues to dwell at historically low levels.

Over the previous parliamentary sitting fortnight however, both Labor and Coalition figures detected a new sharpness to Taylor’s approach, and that of his senior colleagues (apart from one notable migration policy outburst from frontbencher Andrew Bragg).

Some Labor figures believe that during the most recent two weeks of Parliament there was a stark improvement in the performance of Angus Taylor and his key colleagues, as they used Question Time and other procedural plays to inflict pain on the Government.

“The Opposition seems to have got a bit of mongrel and focus back, working a bit more like a team and working parliamentary tactics to keep us on our toes more than we have been for a long time,” one Labor operative observes.

“Does it mean that they’ll suddenly make inroads against us? No, but it does signal that Taylor is serious about fighting his way out of the difficulties he has and we should be wary”.

Labor tacticians have observed that the Liberal leader’s almost daily doorstops outside housing construction sites are providing beneficial backdrops to his political message as he steadily works to make himself more relevant.

Last week, when the Prime Minister floundered over his response to the self-inflicted Melongate saga, the Opposition quickly pivoted in Parliament to elevate the scandal and demand answers.

In Question Time, the usually unflappable Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who for years in opposition led attacks on the Coalition over matters such as the sexual assault of Brittany Higgins, struggled to respond to questions from the Opposition.

Remembering Anthony Albanese’s pursuit of then prime minister Scott Morrison for leaking French President Emmanuel Macron’s text messages, the Taylor-led Opposition then demanded an AFP investigation into leaked Japanese diplomatic notes on Melongate.

During Parliament’s August sittings, the Opposition also continued its relentless attacks against contentious measures in the May Budget, including the so-called “widow’s tax” which Labor finally agreed to scrap last week.

On Monday Coalition figures were buoyed to notice a new DemosAU opinion poll showing they and Labor had both have overtaken One Nation after a sudden slide in support for Pauline Hanson, particularly among women.

The survey, taken during last week’s Parliamentary sitting, showed Labor ahead on the primary vote with 26 per cent support, unchanged since July, while the Coalition had jumped four percentage points to 25 per cent and One Nation was close behind on 24 per cent.

“Who knew acting like an actual opposition would be rewarded? Targeting serious policy stuff-ups and weak ministers has been long overdue,” one Labor figure wryly observes.

One Coalition frontbencher who spoke to The Nightly said they thought the latest polling was “interesting” but it was far too early to say whether the Opposition’s sharper approach was paying electoral dividends.

But a closer look at the DemosAU research reveals a significant “anti-Government” vote, with Labor and the Greens on a combined primary vote of 38 per cent, while the Coalition and One Nation are now at 49 per cent together.

“Angus has certainly managed to sharpen up and is growing into the job, showing more confidence and sticking to his attacks on the Government with confidence. It has helped him a lot that the PM continues to make unforced errors,” the Coalition frontbencher explains.

With the Albanese Government enjoying a 94-seat majority in Parliament’s Lower House, the Coalition still has a herculean task ahead of it before the next election, but recent frictions emerging in One Nation are also a source of hope for the Opposition.

Just days after Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg was rebuked by colleagues for his proposal to lower net migration to 180,000 a year, One Nation’s newest MP David Farley has also earned a slap-down for comments on the same topic at odds with his party’s official line.

The messy display has highlighted that if Angus Taylor can maintain discipline and the blowtorch on Government policy failures, it could soon be the Prime Minister feeling more uncomfortable than he has at any point since the last election.