The single sharpest fact in one or two punchy sentences — who did what, where, when, and why it matters. A recent Resolve Political Monitor has revealed that both Labor and Liberal parties' primary votes have plummeted in the lead-up to the March election. Almost half of voters polled say they would cast their ballot for a minor party or independent if an election was held today, with the combined Labor and Liberal vote lower than it's been since tracking began in November 2021. Yet both party leaders, Chris Minns and Kellie Sloane, are fairly popular, with Minns boasting a net likeability rating of +18, and Sloane's at +8. Both parties believe their soft vote is the result of contamination from their unpopular federal counterparts, and are seeking to set up the March election accordingly. After reports last week that federal Coalition frontbencher Jacinta Nampijinpa Price shared an inflammatory social media post containing false claims about 'importing' Indian migrants, the NSW Labor government issued a statement condemning it. The statement didn't mention Price's status as a federal Senator from the Northern Territory. Instead, it called on NSW opposition leader Kellie Sloane and the state Liberals to 'join with Labor in rejecting attempts to single out Australian-Indians for political gain'. It seems Labor is eager to associate itself with anything that could help its electability. On the other side of the coin, the Liberals under Sloane have spent plenty of time tarring Minns with the prime minister's brush. Her budget reply speech last month attacked 'Anthony Albanese's broken promises on capital gains tax', and accused the Minns government of allowing federal Labor to rob NSW over infrastructure funding. The Herald's latest Resolve Political Monitor presents a clear explanation for why they are so desperate to tie their opponents to their federal colleagues, and put some distance between themselves and their own. For both parties, primary votes have plummeted during this term of government, but the timing for each dovetails with their federal colleagues' own troubles. The NSW Coalition's vote has tracked fairly consistently with their federal colleagues since about August 2024. Between then and February 2025, the Mark Speakman-led party hovered around a reasonably healthy 38 to 37 per cent primary vote, roughly similar to the results Peter Dutton's federal opposition were receiving. Then the federal election happened. After Dutton's disastrous campaign, where the Coalition received just under 32 per cent of the primary vote, the NSW vote also began to decline precipitously, from 36 per cent in April to 32 per cent in June and then finally 28 per cent in November, before Speakman was deposed as leader. From a low of 29 per cent in February 2025, Labor rode the coattails of Anthony Albanese's resurgent, re-elected government to record a 38 per cent primary vote in July last year, its best result since September 2023.