Under Malcolm Turnbull the Coalition would catapult from an election-losing position in the polls to a decisive election-winning lead, according to a new opinion poll that lands as his party’s MPs deliberate on how to vote in Tuesday’s dramatic leadership spill motion.
The Seven News/ReachTEL poll confirmed the Coalition’s current dire position under Tony Abbott’s leadership – with 45% to 55% of the two-party preferred vote.
But when pollsters asked how people would vote if Malcolm Turnbull were prime minister, the Coalition’s position reversed and it lead Labor by 54% to 46% of the two-party preferred vote.
Julie Bishop, the other possible candidate in Tuesday’s ballot would also put the Coalition ahead of Labor if she were prime minister, but by a smaller margin: 51% to 49%.
When forced to choose between Turnbull and Bishop as Liberal leader, 56.5% preferred Turnbull and 43.5% Bishop.
Neither Bishop nor Turnbull have declared whether they will stand if the spill motion to be moved by two West Australian MPs succeeds. The prime minister and his backers are working frantically to ensure the spill motion does not get up.
Of the 3,503 voters polled by telephone last night 62.7% said they thought Tony Abbott was doing a poor, or a very poor job as prime minister; 39.3% thought Bill Shorten was doing a poor or very poor job.
