If polling questions on preferred leaders are anything to go by, then "Don't Know" and "Someone Else" are an unbeatable duo in Parliament. And this creates all sorts of problems, writes Peter Lewis.

It's official. "Don't Know" is emerging as our preferred national leader, outstripping all candidates on the Labor side and just shadowing Malcolm Turnbull with the Coalition.

And if the Don't Knows were to team up with "Someone Else" they would be an unbeatable duo on both sides of the house.

The low regard our current leaders experience is hardly breaking news. Since Kevin Rudd's popularity went south in early 2010 no leader has managed to secure majority approval from the voting public.

We already know that both Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten are labouring with disapproval rates much higher than their approval ratings.

But this week's Essential Report shows that both the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader are struggling to secure any sort of approval, let alone love, as leaders of their own parties.

For Abbott, Turnbull looms large, albeit more so among Labor and Green voters, while Julie Bishop matches his popularity and trumps it among female voters.

Which of the following do you think would make the best leader of the Liberal Party?

Total Male Female Vote Labor Vote Lib/Nat Vote Greens Vote other Tony Abbott 18% 21% 15% 4% 41% 3% 9% Malcolm Turnbull 24% 30% 18% 32% 21% 34% 20% Joe Hockey 3% 3% 2% 2% 4% 2% 2% Julie Bishop 17% 11% 22% 17% 17% 21% 20% Christopher Pyne 1% 2% 1% 1% 2% 2% 1% Scott Morrison 3% 5% 1% 2% 6% - 3% Someone else 13% 13% 13% 17% 3% 20% 28% Don't know 22% 16% 27% 24% 6% 18% 17%

If possible, the situation is worse for the Labor Leader - and indeed for any of his colleagues harbouring leadership aspirations for that matter. Again the Don't Know/Someone Else combo smashes all comers. After 18 months in Opposition no Labor figure is capturing the public's imagination as a future leader.

Q. Which of the following do you think would make the best leader of the Labor Party?

Total Men Women Vote Labor Vote Lib/Nat Vote Greens Vote Other Bill Shorten 16% 20% 13% 34% 10% 4% 6% Anthony Albanese 12% 13% 11% 13% 11% 18% 16% Tanya Plibersek 13% 12% 14% 15% 10% 29% 7% Chris Bowen 5% 7% 3% 3% 7% 7% 5%% Someone else 18% 20% 17% 10% 26% 15% 35% Don't know 36% 29% 42% 25% 35% 27% 31%

Some perspective here. Both leaders are substantially preferred by their party's own voters, but even on their own sides of the house no one is stamping their authority with majority support.

This is despite both leaders championing issues where the public is actually supportive. For Abbott that means owning asylum seekers and global security, while Shorten's renewable target has been embraced. But support for specific policies is not translating into support for the current leaders.

Does popularity matter? Public love did not deliver government to Abbott; rather, the desire to evict a dysfunctional Labor government did the job. Indeed, supporters would say that Abbott burned his personal support to prosecute a highly effective negative election campaign that secured victory.

Conversely, Labor supporters can point to a scoreboard that has had the Opposition consistently ahead of the Coalition - this week the margin is 53-47 - for more than a year. This, they would argue, despite a well-organised, publicly-funded judicial process that has succeeded in raising questions about his personal character.

It is true that politics grinds on despite unpopular leaders. Elections come and go. Someone has to win. Victory is its own justification. But without leaders who have the public respect, if not their love, government is that much harder.

Our greatest leaders like Curtin, Menzies, Whitlam, Hawke and Howard, have inspired us and given us the confidence to take great strides as a nation. Without great leaders, we can go through the motions, but our horizons will be closer, the mandate of trust far more limited.

So it seems to me the current crop of leaders and wannabees may have a mutual interest in lifting each other up, rather than dragging their opponents down, ending the spiral of personal attack that creates a sort of mutually assured destruction that damages not just your opponent but your own team.

Because the problem is that the deeper into the muck the contest goes, the worse the leaders look.

Australian politics needs a circuit breaker. The choice of a less partisan, more collegiate speaker with a brief to restore a constructive Parliament may be in everyone's interest.

Peter Lewis is a director of Essential Media Communications.