After 12 years in the political wilderness, Labor appears poised to form the next NSW government, according to a new poll.
With less than three weeks before the March 25 state election, the Resolve Political Monitor poll is pointing to a majority Labor victory.
However, while 76 per cent of voters polled said they were committed to who they planned to vote for, 24 per cent were still uncertain.
The survey of 803 eligible voters published in The Sydney Morning Herald on Wednesday was conducted between February 22-26.
It found Labor’s primary vote had increased one percentage point to 38 per cent, while the Coalition’s had dropped two points to 32 per cent.
With 93 seats up for grabs, the data points to an overall swing of 7 per cent to Labor – enough to deliver the 47 seats required to form a majority government.
Liberal Premier Dominic Perrottet remains the preferred premier over Labor’s Chris Minns, at 38 per cent to 34 per cent.
Resolve director Jim Reed told the SMH a majority Labor government followed by a minority government were the most likely outcomes of the election.
“However, the comments we receive from respondents tell us that they are still not fully engaged, and a quarter of them tell us they are not committed to their current vote choice,” he said.
The poll also showed support for independents had increased, with a primary vote of 13 per cent compared with 5 per cent in the 2019 election.
With just a week until candidate nominations close for the March election, the Liberal Party is yet to preselect candidates in 17 NSW seats, while Labor has five outstanding.
It comes after bitter preselection battles plagued the Morrison government’s doomed federal election campaign, leading to a court challenge and more than a dozen candidates becoming last-minute “captain’s picks”.
The state party is yet to select candidates for the winnable Port Stephens and Strathfield electorates, or Kiama, where former Liberal MP Gareth Ward will run as an independent.
Mr Ward was removed from the Liberal Party after he was charged with sexual and indecent assault. He denies any wrongdoing and the case remains before the courts.
The Liberals still need candidates in the safe Labor seats of Bankstown, Blacktown, Blue Mountains, Canterbury, Fairfield, Heffron, Mount Druitt, Prospect, Rockdale, Summer Hill, Swansea, Wollongong and Wyong.
The party has not put up a challenger for Lake Macquarie, safely held at the last election by independent MP Greg Piper.
On the Labor side, candidates are still to be chosen for the safe Nationals seat of Oxley, and the safe Liberal seats of Cronulla, Wahroonga and Epping.
The Coalition’s junior partner, the NSW Nationals, have completed their preselection.
On the campaign trail on Tuesday, Mr Perrottet made a major shift by saying his government would not privatise any more government assets if it won.
-AAP
