Politicians often say polls come and go – but this one might hit a bit closer to home for some ministers.

Australians view Malcolm Turnbull as the Abbott government's best-performing minister while they view Christopher Pyne much more dimly, according to a survey that ranks each cabinet member.

McNair Ingenuity Research, which asked 1,005 voters to rate each frontbencher, calculated ratings based on the views of respondents who felt they knew enough about the person to score. Ministers earned a score of 100% if their performance was considered excellent, 75% for good, 50% for average, 25% for poor and 0% for terrible.

The communications minister had the highest score of all ministers, with Turnbull attracting an average of 51%. When divided into the views of respondents based on political support, his score was 31% among Labor voters and 62% among Coalition voters.

The second, third, and fourth-ranked ministers overall were David Johnston (defence), Nigel Scullion (Indigenous affairs) and Peter Dutton (health and sport), although the three were ranked by less than half of respondents, given their lower public profile.

The lowest-ranked minister was Christopher Pyne (education), who attracted a score of just 35% across all respondents, or 20% among Labor voters and 47% among Coalition voters. He was ranked slightly lower than Scott Morrison (immigration) whose performance was scored at 39% overall.

The treasurer, Joe Hockey, equalled Turnbull's rating of 52% among Coalition voters, but with a score of just 29% from Labor voters his overall figure was 47%.

Nineteen in 20 respondents felt they knew enough about the prime minister, Tony Abbott, to rank his performance. He scored at 42% overall, or 22% among Labor voters and 59% among Coalition voters.

McNair Ingenuity Research said people who did not know the minister or enough about their performance were excluded from the rating calculations. It was conducted online, but respondents were drawn from the firm's pre-existing list of participants.

The company said the survey invitations were "managed" in order to invite a statistically balanced representation of people in each major city and regional area across Australia, weighted according to age, gender and location. The respondents said they voted 53% Coalition to 47% Labor after preferences at the last election, similar to the official 53.5% to 46.5% result.

The survey was conducted between Friday last week and Wednesday this week.