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ABC News
ABC News
National

Australians rate Morrison, Albanese out of 10 for trust, competency

A political scientist says Australians are typically tough on their political leaders. (ABC News)

As polling day draws closer, the Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Labor leader Anthony Albanese have ramped up attacks on each other's suitability to lead the country.

Mr Morrison has tried to paint his counterpart as inexperienced and weak.

Mr Albanese, on the other hand, has described Mr Morrison as a liar who is unable to take responsibility.

But what do voters think of the two men vying to be Prime Minister? You've told ABC Vote Compass.

Anthony Albanese scored an overall trust rating of 5.1 out of a possible 10. (ABC News: Toby Hunt)

Australians were asked to rate the leaders out of 10 on trust and competency.

Mr Albanese had an overall rating of 5.1, while Mr Morrison had an average rating of 3.3.

Greens leader Adam Bandt scored an overall average of 4.

Mr Albanese's rating is the highest of any leader over the previous Vote Compass surveys run in the previous four federal election campaigns since 2013 but is only slightly higher than Malcolm Turnbull (4.8) during the 2016 election campaign.

La Trobe University political scientist Andrea Carson said Australians were typically tough on their political leaders.

Mr Morrison has gone backwards since he last faced voters in 2019, at which time he received an average overall rating of 4 out of 10.

ABC election analyst Antony Green said it had been a difficult few years for Mr Morrison due to coronavirus and its impacts on the economy.

"Most leaders, their personal ratings do tend to decline over time," he said.

Scott Morrison scored an overall trust rating of 3.3 out of a possible 10. (ABC News: Luke Stephenson)

Labor and Green voters were relatively generous in their assessments of each others' leaders, but gave little credit to Mr Morrison.

But Coalition supporters still ranked Mr Albanese a 2.9 out of 10.

"The really interesting thing to watch here is that undecided voters are leaning more towards Albanese and ranking him higher than Scott Morrison, as are those who tend to vote for other parties.

"This is going to be important for preference flows potentially come the final polling day," Dr Carson said.

Women were tougher on Mr Morrison than men, but the two sexes were fairly evenly split in their overall ranking of Mr Albanese.

Mr Albanese rated 5.1 for competency, compared to Mr Morrison's 3.3, and 5.2 on trust, compared to Mr Morrison's 2.8.

Adam Bandt scored an overall trust rating of 4 out of a possible 10. (AAP: Gary Ramage)

Green said the Vote Compass data differed from opinion polls because it allowed individual ratings for each leader.

"The fact that Scott Morrison has gone down and Anthony Albanese is rating higher than Bill Shorten is in agreement with what you're seeing in opinion polls' preferred prime minister ratings," he said.

"Scott Morrison did rate higher than Bill Shorten last time, and Anthony Albanese is roughly equal with Scott Morrison at this election, so that shows you Scott Morrison has gone down and Labor is doing better than last time."

About the data

  • Vote Compass responses have been weighted by gender, age, education, language, religion, place of residence and past vote to match the Australian population, creating a nationally representative sample
  • Find out more about the methodology in this explainer
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