It’s official: Anthony Albanese is now a definite drag on the Labor vote.

The government trails the Coalition 49 to 51 percent on the two party vote according to today’s Newspoll.

Labor’s primary vote is a meagre 33 percent compared with the Coalition’s 40 percent.

Were it not for the preferences the Greens deliver to the Labor Party, the government’s two party deficit would be greater than it currently is.

That Greens preference flow to Labor is a portent for why the government continues to pander to its left flank, and a sure sign of the looming dependence a re-elected minority Labor government will have on Adam Bandt and his party

That’s assuming Albo finds a way to win the next election. Because the current numbers suggest that’s up in the air, even though no first term government has failed to win re-election since 1931.

But none have been saddled with the sort of unpopular leader this government now is.

Albo’s personal satisfaction rating is in the toilet. A whooping 55 percent of voters are dissatisfied with his performance compared to just 40 percent who are satisfied.

That results in a net satisfaction rating of minus 15, disastrous for a first term incumbent.

Joe Biden was suffering similar terrible polling results before he pulled out of the Presidential race.

We are used to opposition leaders being unpopular. Their job is to tear down governments, which while often effective also results in personal unpopularity.

But Albo is a PM who has only been in the job for two and a half years, still in his first term.

Yet he’s already on the nose, acting as a sea anchor for his government.

If Labor MPs thought they could orchestrate his removal they would. But the timing, the leadership rules and the lack of an obvious alternative are now Albo’s best friend.

So why is the PM so unpopular?

This is the first Newspoll since news of his $4.3m waterfront holiday property purchase came to light.

That might not have registered with voters had the PM not subsequently become embroiled in a business class upgrades scandal with Qantas.

An airline – with its former CEO Alan Joyce – that backed his unsuccessful bid to install an Indigenous Voice to parliament, voted down by 60 percent of Aussies in every single state.

The erosion of Albo’s connection with mainstream Australians didn’t end there. News of his musical chairs with family members accessing the Chairman’s Lounge has also bobbed around the media.

Did anyone know Albo grew up in housing commission? He never mentions it, so maybe not.

The word amongst some of his senior colleagues is they worry he’s now a drag on the Labor vote because Albo ‘comes across as a class traitor now’, as one MP told Daily Mail Australia.

While Albo once declared that he loves fighting Tories, it seems to a growing number of Australians that he’s now more interested in emulating their privilege.

Which is perhaps why Albo’s popularity continues to sink, and Labor’s electoral fortunes continue to fade.

Throw in last week’s election result in the United States, where a returning Donald Trump Presidency and Republican majorities in the House and the Senate dealt a body blow to the incumbent Democrats.

Could we be about to witness history being made when Australians head to the polls before the end of May next year? Bearing witness to a first term government losing a re-election bid for the first time in nearly 100 years?

I still say no. The more likely scenario is Labor eking out an ugly win, relying on the Greens and other crossbenchers to govern in minority in a second term.

Even if interest rates don’t come down in February next year, because domestic inflation remains too high.

But with unpopular Albo leading Labor’s re-election campaign – remembering he’s a terrible campaigner at the best of times – anything’s possible.