Two opinion polls have shown mixed results for the Coalition government as it prepares its second budget.

The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, has experienced a dive in his personal popularity but people’s voting intentions remain steady, according to the latest Newspoll.

The Newspoll, published by the Australian newspaper on Monday, suggested Labor retained a narrow lead over the Coalition of 51% to 49% on a two-party-preferred basis – the same margin as three weeks earlier.



But a separate Ipsos poll by Fairfax Media put Labor’s lead at 54% to 46%, a three-point improvement for the opposition since the previous such poll in late February.

The biggest movements in the Newspoll survey related to the personal popularity of the prime minister, Tony Abbott, and Shorten.

Satisfaction with the way Shorten was doing his job declined three points to 33%, while dissatisfaction rose four points to 51%. The new figures translate to a net approval rating of minus 18, which is seven points worse than the previous poll.

Satisfaction with Abbott’s performance, however, improved four points to 33% while dissatisfaction declined two points to 59%.

Abbott still has a worse net approval rating than Shorten. But the prime minister’s net approval of minus 26 represents a six-point improvement on this measure since the last Newspoll.

Abbott told the Seven Network on Monday: “Polls go up and down. I’m obviously focused on getting on with government … This is a government which is getting on with the job.”

The Fairfax Ipsos poll showed the treasurer, Joe Hockey, had suffered a heavy political toll after delivering the government’s first budget in May last year. The document was widely criticised for its disproportionate impact on poorer households and many of the key measures were blocked by the Senate.

Hockey’s net approval rating has fallen 45 points over the past 13 months from positive 20 in March 2014 to minus 25 now, Fairfax reported.

The treasurer, who has travelled to the US for meetings with other G20 finance ministers, played down the poll results on Monday.

“It’s not about me, it’s about what is right for Australia and, you know, it’s easy to be popular if you say things that people always want to hear but when you do the things that are necessary for the country then sometimes you cop flack for it but, my God, we are in this business to do what is right for Australia,” Hockey told the ABC.



The Newspoll survey of 1,172 people was conducted from Friday to Sunday and has a stated margin of error of three points. The Fairfax Ipsos poll of 1,404 respondents from Thursday to Saturday has a margin of error of 2.6 points.