We don’t trust the major parties for good reasons

The post-budget approval ratings for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition leader Peter Dutton are both in negative territory, according to opinion polls.

Roy Morgan snap polls showed more people distrust, than trust, both Albanese (net distrust score = -3) and Dutton (net distrust score = -14) since late last year. Dutton was distrusted from even earlier.

See also

Labor’s budget: ‘An unearned veneer of humanity’

Labor 2024 budget shows no heart, no guts and no vision

Urgently needed: A budget for the people

Most people are not buying the Labor government’s promise to address the severe cost-of-living crisis and they don’t think the Coalition would either.

According to Melbourne University researcher Adam Beaumont in The Conversation, the budget “scored a net zero on economic impact,” but most voters thought the Coalition would not have delivered a better one.

As for addressing the climate emergency, Labor’s “Future Made In Australia” plan is a lot of talk about making Australia a “renewable energy super-power”. But it serves as cover for its decision to green-light even more gas mining for export — which will accelerate global warming.

The Climate Council’s Head of Policy and Advocacy Dr Jennifer Rayner described the budget’s climate impact as “more Back to the Future than Future Made in Australia”.

“Australia is already using less gas, so the suggestion we need more of it sounds like Scott Morrison’s ‘gas-led recovery’, not Anthony Albanese’s ‘renewable energy superpower’,” she said.

“More gas means more climate pollution and a more dangerous future, it’s that simple. The Albanese Government has a choice: cut climate pollution and seize the decade by scaling up clean energy, or support new gas projects. It can’t do both.”

Dutton tried to score some populist cheap points off Labor’s Future Made In Australia plan by pointing out, correctly, that it is yet........

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