Guardian Essential poll: voter anger cooling at Morrison government handling of pandemic

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has been lobbying to change the current definition of full vaccination during recent national cabinet deliberations, but there has been no shift yet. The next national cabinet meeting is this Friday.

A major rally is planned at parliament house on Tuesday, and the parliamentary leader of the United Australia Party, Craig Kelly, has signalled he could sign protesters into the building. Two government MPs, George Christensen and Gerard Rennick, have also indicated they will address the protests.

Guardian Essential has only been publishing the head-to-head metrics on a quarterly basis since the last federal election. But given the proximity of the contest, these figures will now be reported fortnightly.

As well as a modest rally for Morrison during the past fortnight, the latest poll suggests the NSW Perrottet government has also recovered some of its lost standing with voters after the significant surge in new Covid cases and deaths during the Omicron summer.

State governments in Queensland and South Australia also saw positive shifts in voter sentiment about pandemic management in the past two weeks, but the Victorian government went backwards, with 47% of respondents characterising management of the pandemic as good at the end of January compared with 42% this fortnight.

On Wednesday, Higgins will appear at the National Press Club in Canberra with former Australian of the Year and survivor advocate Grace Tame.