ALP state secretary John Dowling and Premier Lara Giddings.
THE state government's woes would have contributed to the bleak picture for federal Labor painted in the latest polling, an election analyst says.
A ReachTEL poll of 540 voters in the electorate of Bass conducted for The Examiner found that the Liberal Party would have won the seat in a landslide if a federal election had been held this week.
Election analyst Antony Green said it was likely that the unpopularity of the state Labor-Green government was affecting federal voting choices.
``Between elections the two tend to blur into one,'' Mr Green said.
``The Liberal Party had its worst result ever in Tasmania so the odds were there was going to be a swing back.
``The problem is this goes further than a correction.''
ALP state secretary John Dowling said the poll confirmed that Labor faced a challenge.
However, he said it was simplistic to blame the Bass problems on the difficulties experienced at the state level.
``I suspect people are genuinely hurting because of the state of the Tasmanian economy but I also know there's genuine effort from the federal Labor team and state government to try and support a transition to a new economy,'' he said.
He said polls this far out from an election were not necessarily reliable.
``It's easy for people to make a protest by pressing a button. When you walk into the cardboard booth, that's when I think the thinking will change.''
Premier Lara Giddings also played down the importance of the Bass poll.
``People I think distinguish very firmly between federal politics and state politics and they will make their own minds up on the issues they are concerned about in both jurisdictions,'' Ms Giddings said.
``There is a long way to go until the state election, there's a long way to go before the federal election - we know that even a day can be a long time in politics.''