Major group of voters ditches Dutton just two weeks from the election (2025)

Peter Duttonhas been dealt a blow with support among women voters plunging, according to new polling analysis.

The Newspoll data was published by The Australian and based on an analysis of surveys carried out since the election was called on March 28.

The data showed Labor is now at 35 per cent of the female primary vote compared to the Coalition's 33 per cent, a dramatic turnaround since March 26 when Labor was at 29 per cent and the Coalition far ahead on 38 per cent.

Mr Dutton, when questioned on the campaign trail about what he was offering female voters pointed to the Coalition's promise of a house building boom and said that the cut to fuel excise would benefit 'women driving kids around'.

Labor, on the other hand, appears to have struck a chord with its $500million women's health package thatincludes new contraceptives and hormone therapies added to the PBS along with a string of endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics.

In addition to female voters, the 35 to 39-year-old demographic, said to be key in deciding elections, has also shifted from favouring the Coalition to now Labor sitting well ahead with 56 per cent of the two-party preferred vote compared to 44 per cent.

Early voting got underway on Tuesday and with millions of Australians expected to cast their ballots before election day on May 3, Mr Dutton seems to have little chance of pulling an election-winning Easter rabbit out of his hat.

But Mr Albanese on Monday pointed to the lessons learned during Labor's losing 2019 campaign, when it was tipped to win only to be beaten by the Coalition on polling day.

'(In) 2019 the bookies paid out and guess what? That didn't occur, that was a very unwise thing to do,' he told reporters on the NSW south coast.

'There's no complacency from my camp.

'This election is certainly up for grabs.'

The opposition has been under pressure to reveal its full policy costings, and on Monday, it unveiled a plan to make Australia safer as it attempts to claw back lost ground.

The opposition leader pushed a suite of tough-on-crime policies in an attempt to wrestle votes from Labor in outer urban electorates.

'There's a lot of anger in the suburbs and I think you're going to see that expressed,' Mr Dutton said.

'We are the underdog (but) there's no doubt in my mind that we can win the election.'

The prime minister was in the seat of Gilmore, held by Labor on a 0.2 per cent margin, when journalists grilled him on his government's lack of action on gambling advertising ahead of the May 3 election.

A landmark gambling harm inquiry chaired by late-Labor MP Peta Murphy suggested a total advertising phase-out, but almost two years later, the government has not acted on this key recommendation.

The prime minister acknowledged there was 'more to do' but claimed his government had done more to tackle problem gambling than any previous administration.

Peter Dutton

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