Newspoll: Labor, PM ranked highly on dealing with Trump, housing as Dutton slumps further before election

Labor’s primary vote has lifted to hit its highest point in more than a year in the latest blow to Peter Dutton’s hopes of an election upset on May 3.

With voting booths opening on Tuesday, the latest Newspoll showed the Government holding its four-point lead over the Coalition on two-party preferred — 52 per cent to 48 per cent.

Labor lifted its primary vote to 34 per cent, up one point from last week and at its highest level since last January. The Coalition remained at 35 per cent — lower than the last election when it lost government.

With the fallout from Donald Trump’s trade war looming over the campaign, Mr Albanese scored a significant win with 39 per cent of voters ranking him as the preferred leader to deal with the uncertainty caused by the US President.

Just 32 per cent wanted Mr Dutton in charge.

Labor scored a 20-point lead over the Liberals as to who was best to provide quality health care — after targeting Mr Dutton with a “Mediscare”-style messaging.

Both Labor and the Coalition have made tackling housing key planks of their campaign policies and the poll, published in The Australian, showed the Government was seen by 29 per cent of voters as being better for helping first-homebuyers.

The Coalition (24 per cent) trailed behind. Mr Albanese ranked higher than the Opposition Leader on who was best to lower taxes (33 per cent to 26), and on help with the cost of living.

Mr Dutton was seen as better to grow the economy (34 per cent to 29) and to protect Australia’s defence (35 per cent to 23).

But after a disappointing few weeks on the election trial, Mr Dutton also fell further behind Mr Albanese as the nation’s -preferred leader, with the Prime Minister extending the gap to 16 per cent between the pair.

Amid rising confidence within Labor, the result would likely still return a hung parliament, with the Government forced to negotiate with the Greens and crossbenchers to secure a majority.

Greens leader Adam Bandt confirmed on Sunday he had written to Mr Albanese’s department, asking it to prepare a brief on the minor party’s policy manifesto, in order to ease negotiations after the election.

“With the experts saying we are heading for a minority Parliament we are saying that given that we know that they are looking at things like negative gearing and capital gains tax, let’s do the work now to get the policy work done so we can put some of those ideas on the table and have a discussion about them in the early days of the next Parliament,” Mr Bandt told the ABC.

Mr Albanese has previously ruled out any deals with the Greens.

It comes with millions of Australians expected to cast their votes early for the election as early voting centres open after the Easter long weekend. Early voting begins on Tuesday and runs through until May 2.

People must have a reason to vote early, this can include if you live more than 8km from a polling place, are seriously ill, have work which you cannot leave on May 3 or live with a disability, among others.

Australian Electoral Commission officials have said a higher than usual early turnout is a possibility as voters aim to skip the queues.

“Human behaviour can be challenging sometimes to predict, but we’re ready to try and accommodate everything we possibly can,” electoral commissioner Jeff Pope said.

“Please don’t panic, there’s plenty of time to vote.”

To find your nearest polling place visit www.aec.gov.au.