Only 4 per cent of rural voters prefer Bill Shorten as prime minister, according to an exclusive Fairfax Media poll of Australian farmers.
Almost three-quarters of the farmers surveyed say they intend to vote for the Coalition on July 2, and 61pc prefer Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister.
While national opinion polls put the Opposition seemingly within striking distance of the government, the survey of 1060 rural voters across all states shows Mr Shorten and Labor are behind by a country mile in the bush.
Mr Shorten is a less popular pick for PM than the ousted Tony Abbott (on 8pc) and Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce (5pc), while Labor is level-pegging with minor parties and independents.
The farm poll was conducted by Fairfax Media’s Adelaide-based Fairfax Agricultural Research and Marketing division and the results are published in the June 23 editions of the publisher’s leading agricultural newspapers, The Land in NSW, Western Australia’s Farm Weekly, Stock Journal in South Australia, Stock and Land in Victoria, Queensland Country Life and the North Queensland Register.
The telephone poll shows that 51pc of rural voters say they plan to support the Liberals at the election and 22pc will back The Nationals.
Only 5pc intend to vote for Labor, 5pc plan to vote independent, 4pc are citing other or Senate minor parties such as the Nick Xenophon Team and 2pc back The Greens.
Some 10pc of those surveyed this month say they are undecided or don’t yet know which way they will vote.
Across the states, support for the Liberals slips to 38pc in Mr Turnbull’s home state of NSW and is highest in South Australia, at 72pc.
The Nats poll strongest in NSW (31pc) and Western Australia (28pc).
Labor’s best result is in NSW (8pc) and its worst result is in SA (1pc), where 11pc of voters say they will support other parties and Senate minor parties such as the Nick Xenophon Team and a further 5pc plan to vote independent.
Support for independents is strongest among Queensland/NT voters, at 8pc.
Rural support for the Greens is strongest (at 5pc) in Victoria/Tasmania, where only 4pc cent of voters say they will back Labor.
The farm poll will be a boost for the Coalition, which in the latest Fairfax-Ipsos poll reported at the weekend in Fairfax’s metropolitan newspapers has a primary vote of 39pc to Labor’s 33pc, with the Greens and others each at 14pc.
But a slump in rural support for the Nationals is a concern: from 30pc under former leader Warren Truss in a similar Fairfax Agricultural Media poll before the 2013 election to 22pc this month under Barnaby Joyce.
But voters scored Mr Joyce a creditable 3.5 out of five for his performance as Deputy Prime Minister and Agriculture Minister, with 12pc nationally rating his efforts as “excellent” and 43pc scoring him four out of five.
Among NSW voters, 15pc rate him “excellent” and 45pc score his performance a four out of five.
In Queensland/NT, 20pc rate his efforts as “excellent”.
On the question of preferred PM, Mr Shorten was eclipsed by Mr Abbott in all states, by independent Senator Nick Xenophon in South Australia (5pc) and by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop in WA (3pc to 2pc), but outrated Pauline Hanson in Queensland (4pc to 2).
Asked for the No. 1 issue that will decide their vote, 42pc of rural voters rank managing the economy as most important. Agricultural policies is top priority for 20pc, followed by health and medicare (11pc), environmental management and climate change (7pc), education (5pc) and regional communications such as mobile coverage and internet access (4pc).
Asked to score the government’s performance out of five - from one for “poor” to five for “excellent” - rural voters gave the Coalition a pass mark on export trade agreements (3.3), immigration policies (3.2) and the economy (3.1), but a fail for the backpacker tax (1.9), regional communications (2.1) and the environment/climate change (2.3).
Regional communications was the issue with the largest “poor” rating, with 38pc of respondents giving the government the lowest possible score, followed by the environment (27pc).
The Coalition’s best “excellent” scores were for immigration policies (with 21pc of those who rated it a key issue giving the government top marks) and export trade agreements (14pc).
