NSW: One Nation support slumps to two per cent

AAP General News (Australia)
02-16-1999
NSW: One Nation support slumps to two per cent

SYDNEY, February 16 AAP - Support for Pauline Hanson's One Nation party has slumped to its
lowest level in a year following a recent string of defections from the party's Queensland
branch.

One Nation's national support now stands at two per cent, according to a Newspoll taken for
The Australian last weekend.

That compares with 8.5 per cent at the October federal election, when close to one million
Australians voted for the Party.

Three of One Nation's ten Queensland State MPs quit the party earlier this month, with
another two threatening to go unless the leadership consults more with the grassroots, The
Australian said.

It said the Newspoll results augur poorly for Ms Hanson's senior adviser, David Oldfield,
who needs just over four per cent of the vote to win a set in the NSW upper house in the March
State election.

Most of the voters who backed Ms Hanson in the 1998 poll have now returned to the
coalition, giving Prime Minister John Howard a comfortable lead over Labor.

The survey of 1,500 respondents shows coalition support stood at 46 per cent, with Labor at
42 per cent.

Mr Howard also beat Opposition Leader Kim Beazley in the preferred prime minister stakes by
43 per cent to 34 per cent.

The prime minister's dissatisfaction rating is down to 36 per cent, the lowest result in
nearly two years.

Mr Beazley's dissatisfaction rating is at 30 per cent.

AAP jo/bwl

KEYWORD: HANSON POLL

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