It's just as well Scott Morrison didn't take the prime ministership on a promise of improving the government's standing in the polls. It would have been his first broken promise.

Seven weeks after overthrowing Malcolm Turnbull, the Coalition has only managed to go backwards, according to today's Fairfax-Ipsos poll.

After two years consistently behind Labor, Turnbull had finally managed to draw roughly level with Labor by the middle of the year. Turnbull didn't have the government in an election-winning position, but he had it in a position where winning was starting to look distinctly possible.