Voters' verdict (Part 2): Abbott is worse than Gillard

Colleagues and scholars from coast to coast, across Bass Strait and all the ships at sea.

Dateline: Australia, Federal Politics, Tony Abbott, July 2015.

Yesterday's article "Voters' verdict: Out of touch Abbott is worse than Gillard" (posted here ) presented research which illustrated that the electorate considered Tony Abbott to be very "out of touch with ordinary people" and believed him not to "understand the problems facing Australia" and, most significantly, that he was viewed more poorly on these attributes than Julia Gillard. 

A 'triple whammy' condemnation.

Today's article will illustrate that these research findings were not an aberration and that Tony Abbott as Prime Minister is viewed quite unfavourably on a range of other measures when compared to Julia Gillard when she was Prime Minister. 

Since the 2013 Federal Election (a period of 22 months), Essential Media has measured voter sentiment on a number of attributes for Tony Abbott on six occasions. 

If we compare the average of the first six measurements of Tony Abbott's prime ministerial tenure to the average of the first six measurements taken during Julia Gillard's prime ministerial minority government tenure (a period of 28 months), we find some interesting results in these categories:

1. Leader empathy

2. Leader effectiveness

3. Leader qualities

4. Leader integrity. 

1. Leader empathy

Tony Abbott was seen as being "out of touch with ordinary people" by 63% of voters as opposed to Julia Gillard who was seen by only 55% of voters as being "out of touch with ordinary people", a margin of 8% in Gillard's favour.

Only 42% of voters thought Tony Abbott "understands the problems facing Australia" whereas 47% of voters thought Julia Gillard "understands the problems facing Australia", a margin of 5% in Gillard's favour.

This table summarises those results:

Leader empathy (1st six measures average)	Gillard	Abbott	Difference
Out of touch with ordinary people	55	63	+8
Understands the problems facing Australia	47	42	+5

The following two graphs show how Julia Gillard consistently rated better than Tony Abbott on both measures (click on any graph to see enlarged version):

2. Leader effectiveness

43% of voters thought Tony Abbott was "a capable leader" whereas 47% of voters thought Julia Gillard was "a capable leader", a margin of 4% in Gillard's favour.

40% of voters thought Tony Abbott was "good in a crisis" whereas 44% of voters thought Julia Gillard was "good in a crisis", a margin of 4% in Gillard's favour.

This table summarises those results:

Leader effectiveness (1st six measures average)	Gillard	Abbott	Difference
A capable leader	47	43	+4
Good in a crisis	44	40	+4

The following two graphs show how Julia Gillard mostly rated better than Tony Abbott on both measures:

3. Leader qualities

54% of voters thought Tony Abbott was "intelligent" whereas 72% of voters thought Julia Gillard was "intelligent", a margin of 18% in Gillard's favour.

62% of voters thought Tony Abbott was "hard working" whereas 73% of voters thought Julia Gillard was "hard working", a margin of 11% in Gillard's favour.

This table summarises those results:

Leader qualities (1st six measures average)	Gillard	Abbott	Difference
Intelligent	72	54	+18
Hard working	73	62	+11

The following two graphs show how Julia Gillard significantly rated better than Tony Abbott on both measures:

4. Leader integrity

33% of voters thought Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard were "trustworthy", hence no difference in perception.

32% of voters thought Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard were "more honest than most politicians", hence no difference in perception.

This table summarises those results:

Leader integrity (1st six measures average)	Gillard	Abbott	Difference
Trustworthy	33	33	nil
More honest than most politicians	32	32	nil

The following two graphs show how Julia Gillard rated similarly to Tony Abbott on both measures:

Conclusion

These research results, summarised in this table, show that despite the clear unpopularity of Julia Gillard as Prime Minister, and despite emphatically winning the 2013 Federal Election, Prime Minister Tony Abbott compares unfavourably to Julia Gillard when she was Prime Minister.

Leader Attributes (1st six measures average)	Gillard	Abbott	Difference
Empathy
Out of touch with ordinary people	55	63	+8
Understands the problems facing Australia	47	42	+5
Effectiveness
A capable leader	47	43	+4
Good in a crisis	44	40	+4
Qualities
Intelligent	72	54	+18
Hard working	73	62	+11
Integrity
Trustworthy	33	33	-
More honest than most politicians	32	32	-

Tony Abbott often claimed that the Gillard Government was "a bad government getting worse" and attributed most of that blame to Julia Gillard.

If she set such a low benchmark, what does that say about the current Prime Minister who the public clearly believes does not even measure up to her?