Australia:G20 fails to lift Coalition in polls

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten speaks during an official dinner given by Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Margie Abbott for Chinese President Xi Jinping at Parliament House. The latest Newspoll found a a jump in support for Mr Shorten, with 43 per cent of voters nominating him as preferred prime minister. Photo: Getty Images

Support for Prime Minister Tony Abbott and the Coalition has fallen, with the government’s focus on international affairs and high-level summits failing to cut through with the electorate.

Federal Labor’s two-party preferred polling is at a four-month high of 55 per cent, up one point in the past fortnight, while the Coalition is 45 per cent, down one point, according to a Newspoll published in The Australian on Tuesday.

The poll also found a a jump in support for Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, with 43 per cent of voters nominating him as preferred prime minister, up 5 points, while Mr Abbott’s support fell two points to 37 per cent.

Another federal poll, published by Roy Morgan on Monday, has Labor on 54 per cent on a two-party preferred basis, up 0.5 points in the past fortnight, while the Coalition is down by the same amount to 46 per cent.

These results contrast with the inaugural Fairfax/Ipsos Poll, published at the start of November, which showed Labor on 51 per cent on a two-party preferred basis and the Coalition on 49 per cent.

The Fairfax/Ipsos Poll more closely matched what MPs noticed after speaking to constituents in their electorates, – that terror and foreign affairs have helped drown out earlier budget anger.

In the past fortnight, Mr Abbott attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing and hosted the G20 summit in Brisbane.

The polls were taken prior to the historic China free trade agreement being finalised and announced.

Overall, the three polls – all based on how voters directed their preferences in the 2013 federal election – show a swing against the government of at least 4.5 percentage points since the September 2013 election.

The two-party preferred polls are based on preference flow at the last election.

source:afr.com