Polls show support for Australia’s One Nation sinking before election

SYDNEY: Support for Australia’s once-influential far-right One Nation party plummeted in the past week after a series of scandals and internal ructions, a widely watched poll showed yesterday, weeks out from a general election.

A Newspoll for The Australian newspaper showed One Nation on course to win just 4 percent of the primary vote at the May 18 election, down 2 percentage points from the previous week.

The poll also showed that the conservative Liberal-National coalition government remained on course for a heavy defeat by the centre-left opposition Labor party. Support for One Nation peaked at 11 per cent of the primary vote two years ago, when it held the balance of power in the upper house Senate.

However, One Nation’s influence waned amid internal divisions and its fortunes suffered even further after two prominent members allegedly sought millions of dollars from the US gun lobby in exchange for weakening Australia’s strict gun control laws.

That opens the way for an intense battle for the right-wing vote as small parties and independents compete with the Liberal and National parties for a handful of potential seats.

Conservative voters would typically support the government but the Newspoll showed Prime Minister Scott Morrison had so far failed to win them over.