The man who could ride Jacqui Lambie’s popularity all the way into the senate says he’s not getting carried away by recent opinion polls.
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Recent ReachTEL polling showed why political analysts have long refused to rule out the chances of Jacqui Lambie Network senate candidate Steve Martin ascending to the Senate, with 39.9 per cent of respondents more likely to vote for Senator Lambie than at the 2013 election.
A third of respondents said they were less likely to vote for Senator Lambie, while 27.2 per cent said their vote was unchanged.
The poll, commissioned by News Corp, also showed more than 50 per cent of undecided and Labor voters were more likely to vote for Senator Lambie.
Mr Martin said he didn’t get carried away by opinion polls, but wasn’t surprised by the additional support for Senator Lambie.
“People are fed up with the major parties and would like Tasmania to hold the balance of power in the new parliament,” he said.
University of Tasmania Professor Richard Eccleston said Senator Lambie’s rise in popularity with undecided voters meant she was “almost certain” to secure another term, but said it would be a stretch for Mr Martin to be elected.
“While Senator Lambie has certainly got a higher profile than she did in 2013, I don’t think there’s much evidence to suggest she will get 14 or 15 per cent of the vote, which is what she’d need to get Steve Martin up,” Professor Eccleston said.
Professor Eccleston said having two high profile candidates from the North-West Coast might prove to be a disadvantage for the JLN.
“In a perfect world if a small party wants to maximise its statewide vote it would have candidates from different areas of Tasmania. Clearly there’s much stronger support on the North-West Coast but it’s the statewide support that matters,” he said.
Mr Martin said he was committed to a range of Tasmanian issues, including lowering freight and passenger costs across Bass Strait, banning factory freezer vessels from operating in waters off Tasmania and ensuring the major parties honoured their Tasmania specific election commitments.
The long-time chairman of the Mersey Community Hospital Support Group said he’d continue to advocate for the establishment of a new hospital at a greenfield site between Devonport and Burnie and increasing public funding of Tasmania’s health system.