Labor has seized on the Morrison government’s reluctance to create a user-pays system for mortgage brokers, opening a new front in the political brawl over banking misconduct, as the latest Guardian Essential poll suggests the contest between the major parties is tightening.

The new poll of 1,652 respondents has Labor ahead of the Morrison government on the two-party preferred measure 52% to 48%, a shift within the margin of error from the last voter survey of last year, and one in mid-January that had Labor ahead 53% to 47%.

The possible tightening comes as the government has attempted to neutralise the politically potent issue of poor conduct by the major banks by accepting the recommendations of royal commissioner Kenneth Hayne – although the government has not yet fully signed on to a proposal that borrowers, not lenders, should pay mortgage brokers a fee for acting in connection with home lending. The purpose of such a move would be to break up what many regard as the overly close relationship between banks and the country’s large mortgage broking industry.

In unveiling both Hayne’s final report and the government’s response on Monday afternoon after the close of the financial markets, the treasurer Josh Frydenberg declared conduct in the banking industry needed to change.

But he repeatedly declined to apologise for the Coalition’s opposition to a banking royal commission that prevented the inquiry for more than a year, or acknowledge that the government had let bank customers down by stonewalling. Frydenberg said he was “looking to the future”.

Labor says it will accept all the recommendations in the Hayne report without qualification, and the shadow treasurer Chris Bowen said when it came to remuneration structures for mortgage brokers, the government had resorted to “weasel words”.

Bowen also urged the government to bring on legislation giving effect to the recommendations “as a matter of urgency” so changes could be in place before the federal election expected by May.

Frydenberg said the government had agreed to overhaul conflicted remuneration for mortgage brokers, but noted it was important to proceed in stages, consistent with Hayne’s recommendation, to ensure no adverse effects on competition. “What we don’t want to do is a give a big tick or a free-kick to the banks,” the treasurer said.

The government has agreed to prohibit for new loans the payment of trail commissions from lenders to mortgage brokers and aggregators from July 2020, and also require the value of upfront commissions be linked to the amount drawn-down by borrowers and not the overall loan amount.

It will also ban campaign and volume-based commissions and payments, but the government has hesitated to endorse user-pays.

Asked how quickly the government would move to legislate the Hayne recommendations it has agreed to implement, Frydenberg nominated immediate priorities, which included updating penalties, moving to set up the compensation scheme of last resort, and setting up a capability review into the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.

But he hedged on the timing for the rest of the recommendations. “With respect to those other changes, we only have a few [parliamentary sitting] weeks left, obviously, a couple of weeks left, before we get into the budget sittings”.

Frydenberg said decisions about legislative priorities would be taken in due course.

Hayne in his final report has foreshadowed potential prosecutions against all of the big banks, except Westpac, and was particularly scathing about executives of the National Australia Bank.

Frydenberg declined to say whether heads should roll. “I’m not getting to comment on specific cases or individuals or indeed companies, but I will leave that to the boards and the shareholders to make their own decisions”.

While the banks are promising better conduct, brokers and financial planners have already pushed back against the compensation scheme of last resort. The Financial Services Council, an industry peak body, says it would not be possible unless “the underlying licensing system is strengthened to ensure licensees meet their obligations”.

The new Guardian Essential poll follows a negative blitz over the summer by the Morrison government about Labor’s policies on negative gearing, capital gains tax and franking credits.

The poll has the Coalition’s primary vote on 38% and Labor’s on 36%, and suggests the one-point tightening in the two-party preferred measure.

Essential has changed its panel provider for the rolling survey from YourSource to Qualtrics. Peter Lewis, executive director of Essential says, the same methodology, weighting and quality control is being applied to the data provided.

“Our final poll of 2018 conducted by the YourSource panel found a two party preferred result of 53-47, and our first vote of 2019 using the Qualtrics panel also found a 53-47 vote,” Lewis said.

“This week’s poll shows a slight tightening, with one extended same 1,500 respondents [survey] finding a two party preferred result of 52-48”.