We thought we knew what it took to be a popular politician. He’s a blokey sort in his middle years from a safe seat on the eastern seaboard who loves his sport – someone you could have a beer with.

But the most popular politicians last year, according to the results of our Resolve Political Monitor survey in early December, have upended that trope. They’re not that blokey – they are not even blokes.

The most popular politicians last year aren’t that blokey – they are not even blokes.Credit: Dionne Gain

The top three most popular politicians in Australia are, in order: an Asian-Australian, openly gay foreign minister who fiercely guards her personal life; a pugilistic Tasmanian crossbench senator and army veteran open about the struggles she faced as a single mother; and a conservative Indigenous senator from the Northern Territory who talks about domestic violence’s toll on her family.

Step up, Labor’s Penny Wong (14 per cent net positive likeability), crossbencher Jacqui Lambie (10 per cent) and the Coalition’s Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (6 per cent).

These three senators don’t agree on anything much politically, and they wield power in very different ways. If they have anything in common, it is this: they’ve all earned reputations as tough operators who can talk directly without sounding like they’re reciting the talking points.

This defies the commonplace belief that Australians don’t like outspoken women. Unpopular female politicians too often cite this as a reason for any backlash. But 10 years after Julia Gillard said misogyny “doesn’t explain everything, it doesn’t explain nothing”, three women have shown you can venture firm opinions on heated topics without losing paint.

This does not mean nobody hates them. Voters in the final Resolve Political Monitor poll of the year were shown a list of 40 politicians and asked if they had a positive, neutral or negative view of each of them, generating a net likeability rating by subtracting the negative number from the positive one.

To ride out a year as poisonous as 2023 without becoming demonised suggests that being clear about what you think counts for a lot more than dancing around a subject trying not to offend.