It’s a good time to be Julie Bishop. The Foreign Minister is riding on the crest of a newfound wave of positive press in the wake of her hardline stance against Russia following the MH17 disaster, and that positivity is starting to reap benefits for her in the polls.
To coincide with the one year anniversary of the Abbott Government being voted in by the Australian public (has it really only been a year? Ugh, it feels like a decade) a new McNair Ingenuity Research survey has been released, in comparison to one performed upon the first 100 days of Tony Abbott‘s reign as Prime Minister.
What the new survey shows is that the Federal Budget has taken its toll on certain members of Abbott’s cabinet, including Abbott himself. But others who have managed to steer clear of that fiasco, and focus on other areas of governing have gained a boost in perceived performance.
The survey asked just over 1000 voters to rate each cabinet minister’s performance on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 being terrible and 100 being outstanding. The survey then rated popularity, and any improvement or decline in performance since the previous survey.
What the results show is that Foreign Minister Bishop has officially overtaken the perennially centre-leaning Malcolm Turnbull as the Coalition cabinet’s most popular member, with an overall score of 57.6. Turnbull has had to settle for second, sliding down the scale with a score of 51.1.
On the other end of the scale, with a troubled budget and several horrendous public image gaffes, Treasurer Joe Hockey has dropped dramatically in popularity. Where once he was the third highest rated among the cabinet, now he languishes at the bottom of the table as the least popular cabinet minister, only managing to score a measly 32.2, down from his previous score of 47 flat. Ouch.
Hockey wasn’t the only member to take a popularity hit in the survey, however. Prime Minister Tony Abbott himself has seen his score drop from the previous mark of 41.5 down to his new mark of 39.1. Minister for Social Services Kevin Andrews, Minister for Finance Mathias Cormann, and Attorney General George Brandis also all saw significant drops in their scores from the first survey, and unsurprisingly all have worked closely on the highly controversial Federal Budget.
It seems the lesson here for all Coalition cabinet ministers is, if you value your popularity in the eyes of the public, then it’s probably best to stay as far away from that godforsaken cursed budget as you possibly can.
Photo via Getty Images.
via SMH.
