The latest polling shows that public support for the Coalition government is at its highest for almost nine months, and rose to 47 per cent (up 1.5 per cent) but still trails the ALP at 53 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.
Going to war is one of the few areas for national government that’s not subjected to constitutional constraint – Dr Nick Economou
According to this week’s Morgan Poll, if an election was held now, the ALP would win, based upon the voting intentions of an Australia-wide cross-section of 3,151 Australian electors aged 18+ over the last two weekends.
Primary support for the Coalition was up 1.5 per cent to 40 per cent, while ALP support fell 2.5 per cent to 35 per cent. Support for other parties shows The Greens were at 12 per cent and the Palmer United Party (PUP) at 3.5 per cent.
Political analyst Dr Nick Economou told Neos Kosmos that the upward trend for the government should come as no surprise.
“It’s improving its position. Going to war is one of the few areas for national government that’s not subjected to constitutional constraint in Australia,” said the Monash University lecturer.
“It panders to the egos of Australian national political leaders and gives them an opportunity to strut the world stage and make a contribution to great international events.”
Dr Economou says Labor would have steered an identical course on Australia’s second chapter of military involvement in Iraq, which has so far entailed the deployment of eight RAAF F/A 18 Super Hornets to the region, along with surveillance and refuelling aircraft.
“There’s a great deal of support for what’s happening within the Labor Party, which can be quite socially conservative on a number of issues. People who have a problem with this have long gone from Labor, they’re now in the Greens.”
Meanwhile, Dr Economou says the Abbott government’s actions should not be seen merely as a continuation of conservative Australian governments “seeking to align Australia to the geo-strategic ambitions of our most powerful ally”.
“There is a moral argument too about Australia’s involvement in this, in that we participated in the destabilisation of the region which has led to these events, so we have a moral obligation to be part of whatever solution is decided upon.”
On Thursday, the RAAF attacked their first Islamic State target in Iraq, dropping two bombs on what Defence described as an IS ‘facility’.
Australia is close to reaching an agreement with the Iraqi government for troops to deploy on the ground in the country. The deal will allow the deployment of a 200-member unit of special forces to assist Iraqi security forces in the fight against Islamic State. Tony Abbott has left open the possibility of Australia joining a ground campaign against IS militants “down the track”.