Guardian Essential poll: One Nation’s popularity slips as Albanese records lowest approval as prime minister

Labor’s national primary vote has dropped five percentage points in a month, falling to 26% in the latest Guardian Essential poll, as Anthony Albanese records his lowest approval rating as prime minister.

And despite One Nation’s win in Saturday’s Secret Harbour byelection in Western Australia, the poll showed the national primary vote for Pauline Hanson’s party dropping five percentage points since May. The party recorded a primary vote of 23% in the latest poll, down from a peak of 28%.

Labor and the Coalition both recorded primary votes of 26% in the new results. That position represented a rise for the Coalition, from 22% in July, while Labor was down from 31%.

The poll has a margin of error of about 3%.

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Just 35% of the more than 1,000 Australians polled approve of the prime minister’s performance, according to the results, with 56% disapproving.

Essential Media’s executive director, Peter Lewis, said the results showed the debate around cutting net overseas migration (Nom) into Australia had hurt Labor’s standing with voters.

Albanese overruled moves to cut Australia’s annual refugee intake on Friday, and broader policy changes expected from the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, have been delayed for weeks.

Hanson and her One Nation colleagues have struggled to explain their policy to cut overseas arrivals into Australia, including naming different baselines for Nom.

“This month’s poll shows some churn away from the government towards both One Nation and to the Coalition as a messy immigration debate swirls,” Lewis said.

“The national mood is also at its lowest ebb since we started tracking in 2022 with 59% of voters saying they think the nation is on the wrong track.

“The drivers for this appear to be cost of living, global uncertainty and extremely high levels of concern about the impact of AI on work.”

As Labor considers tougher policy settings for technology – including in AI and social media – more than 70% of Australians agreed or strongly agreed that they wanted more control over what they see in their social media feed.

More than two-thirds of respondents agreed online content is contributing to violence against women, while 65% agreed it is “almost impossible” for teenage boys in Australia to avoid seeing damaging content when using the internet.

Founder of the Teach Us Consent advocacy group, Chanel Contos, will use an address to the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday to call on Labor to legislate tough new opt-in algorithm rules for social media platforms.

She will argue opt-in technology “would fundamentally make the transition on to social media for 16-year-olds and other children safer, and it would bring the principle of affirmative consent to our screens.”

“It is too easy for Big Tech to design schemes that appear as structural reform but actually suit them just fine,” Contos will say.

As the nation’s peak union body, the ACTU, undergoes a leadership transition from former national secretary Sally McManus and president Michele O’Neil, just 9% said they were a member of a union today.

More respondents said they were members of local sporting clubs (15%), voluntary organisations (11%), a church (10%), or a member of their favourite professional sporting club (10%).

More than half of respondents said unions were important for working people today (56%), while 35% said they were not important. Nearly 40% said workers would be better off if unions were stronger, while 30% said they would be worse off.

The incoming ACTU secretary, Melissa Donnelly, the recent national secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union, succeeded McManus this week.

Voters were split on the performance of the opposition leader, Angus Taylor. The poll found 33% approved of his performance in the role, while 35% disapproved.