Most voters approve of the way Tony Abbott is managing “relations with other countries” but disapprove of his government’s handling of almost everything else, according to a new opinion poll that shows Labor retaining a convincing lead.

With international military action against Isis and the Malaysian air disasters dominating the news, 39% of those surveyed by Essential Media rated the government’s handling of “relations with other countries” as good and 24% as poor, resulting in a net rating of +15% – a substantial improvement from its -3% net rating in February (28% said its performance was average).

But voters delivered net negative ratings for the government’s handling of every other issue, with big slumps in how the electorate viewed the Coalition’s performance on climate change (net -27%), health services (-27%), social welfare (-26%) and education and schools (-26%).

The government’s rating has deteriorated significantly since February on each of these issues.

And voters’ views of how well the government is managing the economy also fell from a net rating of +3% in February to -6%.

The Coalition’s primary vote was unchanged at 39% in the survey, with Labor retaining a convincing lead of 53% to 47% in the two-party-preferred vote. Labor’s two-party-preferred vote increased one percentage point after a slight rise in the Greens’ vote.

Voters rejected the government’s contention that they would be no worse off as a result of the long delay in the increase in compulsory superannuation, a surprise outcome from the deal with the Palmer United party to secure the Senate passage of the mining tax repeal.

Tony Abbott argued this was not an “adverse change” because workers would receive the money “in their pockets” in the form of higher wages. But hardly anyone believes this. Asked whether they believed workers would receive higher salary increases as a result of the deferral, only 10% said yes and 65% said no, including 60% of Liberal National party voters.

Only 29% said they approved of the deferral in the increase in compulsory superannuation, and 49% said they disapproved, including 25% of Liberal National party voters.

Voters were decidedly cool on the idea of Australia buying up to 10 submarines from Japan for as much as $20bn, with 28% saying they supported such a purchase and 51% saying they opposed it.