Bill Shorten is the least popular Labor leader for more than a decade, the latest Newspoll has found, while the Malcolm Turnbull-led Coalition has retained its election winning lead.
The poll, published in the Australian on Tuesday, showed the Coalition’s rating in the two-party-preferred stakes remaining steady at 53% to Labor’s 47%.
Labor’s primary vote is down one percentage point, sitting at 33% to the Coalition’s 46%. That percentage point was picked up by the Greens, up from 10% last fortnight to 11% on Tuesday.
The government’s two-party-preferred rating has been creeping up steadily since Turnbull took the leadership on 14 September. On the last poll before the spill, the Coalition’s two-party-preferred standing was 46% to Labor’s 54%.
Turnbull’s personal popularity continues to rise. He is up three percentage points to 64% as preferred prime minister. When he took the leadership, 55% thought he was the better prime minister, compared with 21% who preferred Shorten.
Turnbull’s predecessor, Tony Abbott, was languishing at just 37% in the his last poll as prime minister, taken in early September.
Shorten’s rating as preferred prime minister is on a downward trajectory, slipping three percentage points to 15%. That makes him the least popular Labor leader since Simon Crean in 2003.
Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd stood at 33% and 36%, respectively, at their lowest points of popularity, though both were in government at the time.
The shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, told ABC radio on Tuesday that being opposition leader was an incredibly difficult job.
“Malcolm Turnbull’s pitch to voters is hey, my name is not Tony Abbott,” he said. “At some point, Malcolm Turnbull has to announce his policies.”
Despite the poor polling, Bowen remained confident of Labor’s chances.
“I believe we can win the next election,” he said.
