Mr Howard starts ’86 on brighter note

Press, 3 February 1986, Page 36

Mr Howard starts ’86 on brighter note

By

CHRIS PETERS

NZPA staff correspondent Sydney

The Australian Opposition Leader, Mr John Howard, received a New Year boost to his political fortunes with the first public opinion poll of 1986 showing the slide in his popularity has finally stopped. Mr Howard, who took over from the beleaguered Andrew Peacock in September last year and immediately raced to the high 40s in the poll ratings, slumped badly as the rest of the year and the political realities took their toll.

He ended the year with just 32 per cent of voters believing he was doing a good job, and only 19 per cent believing he would make a better Prime Minister than the Labour incumbent, Bob Hawke.

But the first Morgan Gallup Poll of 1986 showed that the slide has been arrested, and he starts the year with a personal approval rating of 33 per cent, while 20 per cent of voters say he would make a better Prime Minister. The down side of that though is that Mr Hawke’s personal approval rating has dlso gone up three

points to 62 per cent, and 68 per cent of voters believe he is a better Prime Minister than Mr Howard would make. Analysts say part of the reason for the improved rating of Mr Hawke is the holiday season when politicians aren’t doing anything to annoy the voters, and that is reflected in the rating of the two parties starting the New Year. If an election had been held in mid-January, 50 per cent of voters would have gone for Labour, up two points and returning the Government with an increased majority, while a static 43 per cent would have voted for the Lib-eral-National Party coalition.