Voters in two pivotal Liberal seats are at odds with the Turnbull government over its core economic initiative for 2017 - an ambitious $48 billion plan to slash the 30 per cent corporate tax rate to 25 per cent over 10 years - with many inclined to see companies pay more tax, not less.
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And voters are also offside over green energy, with some six in 10 favouring policies closer to Labor's steep 50 per cent renewable energy target for 2030.
A survey of voter attitudes in Malcolm Turnbull's seat of Wentworth, and Tony Abbott's seat of Warringah, found 57 per cent of respondents think current company tax at 30 cents in the dollar for most companies, is either about right or perhaps too low.
That suggests the political case in Australia against multinational tax avoidance, tax minimisation, and profit-shifting, led by Labor and the Greens, has tapped public opinion more than the government's claim that cutting business taxes automatically leads to higher wages for employees and to more of them.
A ReachTEL poll of electors in the two Sydney Harbour-based seats on February 1, sought responses from residents on whether the current company tax rate was too high, too low, or about right.
It then asked voters if the 30-cent tax rate should be increased; stay the same; be cut for all businesses - as the government is attempting to legislate - or be cut but for small businesses only.
Labor favours a cut in business taxes to 27.5 per cent only for businesses with an annual turnover below $2 million.
The government wants that definition broadened to encompass those with annual turn-over up to $10 million.
In Wentworth, the percentage of voters who think the current rate is about right plus those who think it is too low, amounted to a staggering 56.7 per cent. That's well more than half of voters in the Prime Minister's own well-to-do constituency who think companies could and perhaps should, pay more.
The result underscores the depth of the government's political/communications challenge.
Mr Turnbull was asked about that task last week and remarked that selling the link between lower businesses taxes would lead to stronger growth, more jobs, and higher wages, was "not rocket science".
"This is actually a pretty straightforward proposition . . . if you want more of something, lower the tax on it," he had said. "If you want more investment, you lower business taxes and you will get more investment . . . it is not rocket science, believe me."
But the findings of the automated telephone poll commissioned by the left-leaning Australia Institute suggest that selling a tax cut for big companies, could be almost as difficult as teaching rocket science because some Coalition voters are yet to come on board.
In Warringhah, there was strong support for the small business cuts at 46 per cent but just 17 per cent of the 723 voters surveyed wanted the relief to extend to all companies.
In Mr Turnbull's seat, where the sample size was 750, support for increasing the corporate tax rate was at 43 per cent and 33 per cent for cutting it. However, when those backing the current rate and those wanting it increased were combined, there was a solid 57 per cent-plus who are effectively opposed to the government's tax-cut policy.
"Estimates of a growth dividend have not been made and even the Prime Minister's own electorate is not convinced," executive director of The Australia Institute Ben Oquist said.
"The plan to give $50 billion dollars in cuts is electoral poison. This research shows that even in blue-ribbon Liberal seats, voters think that companies don't pay enough tax."
The government has another headache on its hands over the renewable energy target with conservative-aligned electors fond of increased clean power even as Mr Turnbull swings behind coal as a bedrock energy source for the future.
In Warringah, where Mr Abbott advocates scrapping the current RET, 57 per cent support an increased target or at least retention. In Wentworth, just 28 per cent want the mandated target reduced.
"Everyone can see that the price of renewables is in free fall. The idea that we need to subsidise new coal plants in Australia is quite rightly a fringe one," Mr Oquist said.
"Billions have been poured into carbon capture and storage, and it still doesn't work. It's still expensive. Renewables, combined with battery storage, means cheaper reliable clean energy is here right now."
Mr Turnbull has indicated that rising household energy costs will be a key battleground area and plans to use the opening two weeks of Parliament to hammer home the message that Labor stands for more expensive, less reliable electricity.
