Lambie calls for early election amid PM’s poor polling

Jacqui Lambie says Anthony Albanese should call an election sooner rather than later after a key poll found him to be Australia’s weakest prime minister in decades.

The outspoken independent senator said on Monday she did not think the Prime Minister’s performance in the polls was “going to get any better for him” ant it was in his interest to call it before bills pile up in the first quarter of 2025.

“I don’t think he can afford to go for much longer and hold out,” Senator Lambie told Nine.

“And I’ll call it again, I would have called it for the 7th of December if I was him, waiting for his Christmas cheer and hoping, hoping the very best of my fingers crossed.

“Because I think the longer he leaves this, people are going to have all their rates coming in March, they’re going to have their Christmas bills coming in, they’ve got all the kids’ school stuff coming in, they’ve got their energy costs coming, their energy bills coming in.”

She said people would not “get any more slack” and warned against pinning hopes on an interest rate cut.

“And I don’t see an interest rate cut coming before he goes to an election, and if that’s what he’s holding his head on, I tell you what, he’s got it very, very wrong this time,” the crossbencher said.

The latest Newspoll showed Mr Albanese’s rating as a strong and decisive leader slipped five points to 44 per cent, the lowest score since the metric was introduced in 2008.

Meanwhile, Peter Dutton maintained his standing at 60 per cent.

But the poll was not all bad news for Mr Albanese.

It found that he was still more likeable than the Opposition Leader and brought Labor and Coalition back to a 50/50 split on a two-party preferred basis after the opposition gained a minor lead in October.