Guardian Essential poll: Albanese’s approval wavering as honeymoon fades

A majority of voters favour a return to mask wearing to help slow transmission during the Omicron third wave, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll, which also finds Anthony Albanese's initial honeymoon with voters has moderated.

The latest survey of 1,097 respondents finds more than half of Guardian Essential respondents (56%) continued to approve of the prime minister's performance (down three points since June), while 24% disapproved (up six points in a month).

Albanese's approval and disapproval metrics have been volatile in recent months. To step out the recent trend, the Guardian Essential poll taken immediately before election day showed voters were evenly split between approving (42%) and disapproving (41%) of the Labor leader's performance.

But the first poll taken after Labor's election victory on 21 May saw voter approval of Albanese gallop from 42% to 59%, while disapproval of his performance dropped from 41% to 18% - a positive turnaround in voter sentiment not seen since the Rudd era.

While disapproval of Albanese's performance had ticked up as the prime minister settled into the top job, just under half the sample (47%) believed Australia was going in the right direction, compared with 28% who say wrong direction and 26% undecided - which is basically the same view voters held a month ago.

Albanese has set a cracking pace since winning the election, embarking on a heavy program of international travel, including a visit to Ukraine, and undertaking a range of domestic actions, including returning the Nadesalingam family to Biloela, signing off on the government's minimum wage submission, dropping the prosecution against Witness K's lawyer, Bernard Collaery, for allegedly revealing spying on Timor-Leste, providing flood relief and releasing a new ministerial code of conduct.

But Australians continued to do it tough, whacked by rising consumer prices, including petrol prices going over $2 a litre. The Reserve Bank last week also triggered a third interest rate hike in as many months, hitting households already struggling with the rising cost of living. Recent floods were also likely to exacerbate shortages that have increased the price of fruit and vegetables.

A cold and wet winter has also seen a spike in cases of the flu and Covid. Voters were asked a series of questions in the latest survey about the ongoing management of the pandemic and about their own experiences with Covid.

In early July, Australia recorded a grim milestone of 10,000 deaths from Covid since the virus emerged two and a half years ago. When respondents were asked how many deaths each year from the virus would be considered acceptable to live with, 17% of the sample said between 1,000 and 5,000 deaths a year, and only 6% said between 5,000 and 10,000 a year - the current rate.

While the latest results suggested Australians remained uncomfortable with current high death rates, the Guardian Essential data suggested attitudes have shifted over time.

Back in August 2021, 61% of respondents thought Australia's acceptable deaths should be less than 100 a year (only 42% of respondents say that now). A year ago, 25% of respondents thought an acceptable death rate was between 100 and 1,000 deaths (31% said that now).

The new poll suggested community sensibilities about the pandemic were split. More than half the sample (55%) thought we needed to treat Covid like the flu and just get on with normal life, and just under half of respondents (47%) said they thought most people with infections recovered quickly.

But there was also concern about hospitals and support for mask wearing in certain settings to lower rates of viral transmission. A majority (65%) was concerned hospitals were dealing with too many Covid patients and consequently lacked capacity for other illnesses or emergencies.

And 60% of respondents believed mask wearing should return to stop the winter spread.

More than half of respondents (53%) also agreed with the decision last week to extend a fourth booster shot to Australians.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation last week strongly recommended a fourth dose of Covid vaccine for people over 50 and also called for greater use of face masks, warning that more vaccine doses could only play a "limited" role in reducing hospital admissions and case numbers.

People were also asked to share their experiences with Covid-19. Official statistics showed more than 8 million Australians have had the virus, but 68% of Guardian Essential respondents said they had not had it or did not believe they had had it.

Lived experience (comprising 32% of respondents) was mixed, with 4% reporting they were currently infected and the symptoms felt like a bad cold, another 4% saying they were infected and the symptoms were significantly worse than a cold, 17% reporting having had the virus in the past with symptoms similar to a bad cold, while another 7% saying their lived experience with the virus was significantly worse than a cold.

The cohort of respondents who had not yet contracted the virus were more likely to support the rollout of a fourth booster shot and the reintroduction of mask wearing.

But while supporting measures to curb the spread, they were more likely to agree that Covid needed to be treated like the flu than respondents who were currently sick with the virus.