The Perrottet government has accused the New South Wales Minerals Council of feeding data to the media to undermine the Coalition in its battle to limit losses in closely contested seats.
Sky News Australia on Tuesday and Wednesday cited unnamed “industry polling” as pointing to big swings away from the Coalition in three key seats and in Hornsby, a safe seat held by the treasurer, Matt Kean. It did not cite other details such as the polling size or the questions asked.
A government source said the NSW Minerals Council had shopped the poll results to several media outlets. Those surveyed were asked questions such as “Do you agree that Matt Kean is responsible for pushing up energy prices?”
The Minerals Council was approached for comment, and to share the result of any polling.
The industry lobby group has generally supported the Coalition over its 12 years in office. In January, though, the council’s chief executive Stephen Galilee criticised the government’s intervention to order coal exporters to reserve a “small portion” of output for domestic power stations should shortages emerge to help bolster the federal government’s price cap for the fossil fuel.
“The NSW Energy Minister’s coal price cap is a clumsy, politically-motivated market intervention designed in haste, with little or no consultation,” Galilee said. “The policy will have no meaningful impact on electricity prices, but will come at a significant economic cost.”
Kean rejected the reported polling. “If a fake polling campaign is the price I have to pay for keeping energy prices down, it’s a price I’m willing to pay,” he told Guardian Australia.
Sky News claimed the polling revealed Kean faced a 16% swing against him in his seat of Hornsby at the 25 March election, with most of the vote shifting to One Nation and the Liberal Democrats.
“Mr Kean – who has become a polarising figure with the Liberal base over his pro-climate policies – will have to rely on One Nation preferences to win the seat, with his primary vote having slumped from 53% to 37% according to the poll that was conducted by an industry group,” Sky News reported.
In a follow-up report on Wednesday, Sky News again cited “industry polling” to state that Kean was a net negative in three closely contested seats, Leppington, Goulburn and Wakehurst.
In Leppington, the polling found net favourability of the Liberal premier, Dominic Perrottet, as minus-four compared with the Labor opposition leader, Chris Minns, at plus-six. Kean, who is also the deputy Liberal leader, was described as having a net rating of minus-39. No other politicians’ ratings were cited.
In Goulburn, Perrottet’s reading was a net minus-four, Minns was at plus-nine and Kean at minus-29.
Sky News commentators said the polling showed the treasurer’s priorities – from the $1.2bn fast-tracking of renewable energy to more than $16bn of economic enhancement for women – were not cutting through with voters.
“Those numbers, if they are replicated on Saturday night, tell me that Chris Minns will be the next premier, and the problem is Matt Kean,” Kieran Gilbert, Sky News’s chief political reporter, said.
