Australians are abandoning Labor and aren't buying assurances over cost of living support with the prime minister and opposition leader neck and neck for the top spot.
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Voter support for Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton is tied at 35 per cent with the remainder undecided, according to a Resolve Political Monitor analysis for The Sydney Morning Herald.
Mr Albanese leads Mr Dutton in the two most populous states of Victoria (39 per cent to 33 per cent) and NSW (36 per cent to 34 per cent), the poll shows based on responses from 4620 voters between July and September.
But Labor's primary vote has taken a hit and trails the coalition in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia, sitting at 30 per cent or just below in each state.
The coalition's primary sits around the mid-to-high 30s across the board and is the strongest in Queensland at 42 per cent.
A separate poll for The Australian put Labor's national primary vote at 31 per cent and the coalition's at 38 per cent but the two major parties remained tied 50-50 on a two-party preferred basis.
The Greens lifted slightly to 13 per cent while One Nation slipped a percentage point down to six.
It wasn't a surprise Australians struggling with financial pressures and budget pain would look for someone to blame, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said.
But the government would continue to focus on making the right economic calls to help moderate inflation, she said.
Mr Dutton sought to pin cost of living pressures on the Albanese government, blaming federal spending for sticky inflation putting the handbrake on interest rates coming down.
"Every month that goes by where interest rates haven't come down, people are paying more and more for their mortgages," he told Sydney radio station 2GB.
"They just can't afford it and they certainly can't afford another couple of years of this."
Inflation is starting to moderate towards the central's banks target range of two to three per cent.
Mr Albanese spruiked higher wages and inflation halving from when he inherited government in 2022.
"We want to make sure that we continue to put that downward pressure on inflation whilst dealing with cost of living pressures," he said.
Australian Associated Press
