Anthony Albanese forced to defend performance after Labor drops behind Coalition in Newspoll

Anthony Albanese has been forced to defend his Government’s performance after polling showed Labor lagging behind the Coalition for the first time.

The Prime Minister dismissed the polling, saying he was focused on leading a majority government and providing cost-of-living relief while promising to offer a second-term agenda covering education, health and childcare.

The Newspoll published on Monday showed Labor behind the Coalition 49-51 for the first time since the election.

However, the two parties’ primary votes were stable, with the movement within the margin of error coming from changes in which minor parties said they would back.

“We know that cost of living pressures are very real, but my Government is addressing them and I make this point, that Peter Dutton has opposed every single one of those measures that we have undertaken,” Mr Albanese said when asked about the polling.

“When people focus in the election on what the choices are, I’m very confident that they’ll continue to support the Federal Labor Government that understands the pressures that people are under and that is doing something to assist them.”

Cabinet minister Murray Watt said earlier on Monday that the polls reflected that Australians were still doing it tough.

“I guess what it tells me, and I think all of my colleagues, is that we need to work that little bit harder to explain what we are doing to assist people with those cost of living pressures and the risk that we face if Peter Dutton and the Coalition win the next election,” he said.

Colleague Tanya Plibersek echoed the sentiment that people would focus on the choice as the election neared.

“We’re focused. We’re doing the right thing. It’s a very close poll,” she said.

“People remember what it was like to have a Liberal government. They’ll remember robodebt, they’ll remember the secret ministries, they’ll remember sports rorts, they’ll remember car park rorts.”