In the Upper House, 9 per cent of respondents favoured the Greens, while One Nation – fighting its first state campaign since 2006 – picked up 5 per cent, as did the Nick Xenophon-founded SA Best.
Former Xenophon acolyte John Darley’s Advance SA, which has announced cross-border community advocate Paula Gust as its prime Legislative Council candidate, garnered one per cent, with 13 per cent of respondents identifying other crossbench options.
These could include a glut of minor parties and independents, with Family First seeking to re-establish its electoral credentials under former Labor MPs Tom Kenyon and Jack Snelling, and former Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Pallaras seeking election under his Real Change SA banner.
A table detailing voting intention for the Upper House.
The Australia Institute’s SA director Noah Schultz-Byard said the results of the first statewide poll since the campaign began showed “it will be a hard-fought campaign that may well come down to the wire”.
“While there are mixed opinions in the community regarding the decision to open the state’s border in November, there is a strong sentiment that the Government should have done more to prepare the state for the subsequent influx of COVID-19,” he said.
“The perception that South Australia was not adequately prepared when the borders were opened is held across the political spectrum, with a majority of voters for all parties agreeing more should have been done.”
The Institute’s previous poll in September identified health – and the COVID pandemic – as key battlegrounds for the forthcoming election, but Schultz-Byard emphasised thxjmtzywat “polling doesn’t predict political outcomes and is simply a snapshot of sentiment at one time”.
Nonetheless, he said, “if these voting intention results are reflected as a uniform swing at the election, Labor would win the four seats required to form a majority in the lower house”.
“Of course, the election is still a month away and anything can happen on the day,” he added.
