The Fairfax/Ipsos survey shows the two major parties are now neck-and-neck when voters are asked how they would allocate their preferences, producing a 50:50 result that is the strongest performance by the Coalition since the last federal election. The Prime Minister faces a key test of his performance on Monday when the government notches up an expected 30 Newspoll consecutive Newspoll loses, the benchmark he cited as a reason to replace Mr Abbott. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has ruled out calling a leadership spill once he hits the same polling result he used to topple Tony Abbott. But in a clear warning to government MPs against a leadership spill, 74 per cent of Coalition voters - and 62 per cent of all voters - told the Fairfax/Ipsos survey they believed the Liberals should keep Mr Turnbull.

Asked if he would call a Coalition vote on the leadership if the government failed 30 Newspolls, Mr Turnbull dismissed the idea. “No,” he said. “What the Australian people want me to do is to get on with delivering and governing, and that’s what we’re doing. “People are frustrated by the inside the beltway political commentary. When they see a news story that’s about personalities or polls it disappoints them again because they’d rather be talking about the economy, about jobs.” The Prime Minister said the Coalition would have lost the 2016 election under Mr Abbott and the attention on the opinion polls since that result was overblown. “I just point to the fact that we’ve had two federal byelections recently, both of which we’ve won. One of them, I might say, we won with a result that was quite different to what the polls predicted,” he said. “And we’ve had two state elections, which the Liberal Party has won.

“And just in case people have overlooked this fact, we won the 2016 federal election and we kept Bill Shorten out of government.” The support for Mr Turnbull to remain leader - 62 per cent across all voters - compares to 46 per cent support for Mr Abbott when voters were asked a similar question in February 2013. Loading The February 2013 survey, conducted when Julia Gillard was under threat as prime minister from her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, showed only 45 per cent support to keep Ms Gillard as leader.

Mr Turnbull has won more support from voters on two key measures of his personal performance after a week that included a test of his authority from Mr Abbott and other conservative members who called for government intervention to build new coal-fired power stations. Mr Turnbull has widened the gap against Mr Shorten as preferred prime minister, leading by 52 per cent to 31 per cent, compared to a lead of 48 per cent to 31 per cent in the Fairfax/Ipsos survey published on December 4. In an important measure of voter satisfaction, 47 per cent said they approved of Mr Turnbull’s performance while 43 per cent said they disapproved. This means his “net approval” rating is positive for the first time since last May. Mr Shorten saw no significant change to his performance, with 38 per cent approval and 53 per cent disapproval.

The 48:52 two party result is the best result for the government in a Fairfax/Ipsos goal since the last election, and compares with a result of 47:53 in December. The widespread dissatisfaction with the two major parties continues to shape the opinion poll results, with 18 per cent of voters giving their first preferences to minor parties and another 12 per cent supporting the Greens. The Labor primary vote increased slightly to 34 per cent while the Coalition primary vote rose from 34 to 36 per cent compared to the December survey. These changes were within the margin of error of 2.9 percentage points. The survey of 1166 respondents was conducted from April 3 to 5, a period when Mr Turnbull was dealing with calls from Mr Abbott and other conservatives for a dramatic shift in energy policy to fund a coal power plant. Mr Shorten seized on the new signs of dissent to warn voters against trusting the Coalition to run a stable government.

“I think the Liberal Party knows that they are stuck with a leader who can't lead, they know it," Mr Shorten said on Thursday. Mr Turnbull told Fairfax Media he could “absolutely” win the next election because voters would see the gulf between the government and Labor on the economy after a year that saw the creation of 420,700 new jobs. “I’m confident that it’ll come down to an economic choice. We will be standing there saying ‘we promised that we would deliver jobs and growth and we have’,” he said. “We’re delivering lower taxes, a stronger economy and more jobs. Labor are putting all of that at risk. Loading

“It’s the risk of Labor that we have to make sure people understand, and I believe they will. “The real question is do you want lower taxes, a stronger economy and more Australian jobs, or do you want a weak economy, higher taxes and higher unemployment? And that’s what Labor would deliver." The “risk of Labor” is a key phrase in the government’s economic message at a time when voters appear to be warming to the company tax cuts that are at the heart of Mr Turnbull’s economic agenda. The Fairfax/Ipsos survey found 49 per cent of voters support the company tax cuts, compared to support of 44 per cent in March last year.

Mr Turnbull said he could counter Mr Shorten’s message to voters about the need to return fairness to federal budget policy, a key theme for Labor since the unpopular 2014 budget. “There’s nothing fair about being unemployed, there’s nothing fair about your business failing or not being able to grow, there’s nothing fair about not getting a start because businesses are not hiring,” Mr Turnbull said. “The whole Shorten campaign about inequality is one that is based on inciting the politics of envy without paying any regard to the need to encourage investment and growth.” While Labor has gained support from younger voters in the opinion polls conducted since the last election, Mr Turnbull insisted his economic message would counter that appeal. “They want a job, they want a good job and they want to be able to get ahead,” Mr Turnbull said of younger voters.