Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says the Labor Party's boost in the latest opinion polls will not last long.

The first polls since former prime minister Kevin Rudd was deposed show Labor has a healthy lead over the Coalition.

The latest opinion polls show new Prime Minister Julia Gillard holding more than a 20-point lead as the preferred prime minister over Mr Abbott.

In the latest Herald/Nielson poll Labor's primary vote has climbed to 47 per cent, while support for the Coalition has fallen 1 point to 42 per cent.

But Mr Abbott told a Liberal party conference in Canberra that Labor still has a set of policies that Australians do not like.

"Right now the new Prime Minister is enjoying a predictable bounce in the polls that was to be expected the Government has tried to fix the headlines," he said.

"But they can't fix the problems and the headlines won't stay fixed unless they fix the problem."

Mr Abbott says he has already toppled one prime minister and he believes he can claim another scalp at the next election.

"We can do it again because the Australian people are wondering why the Prime Minister of this country should be chosen by the union and the factional warlords rather than by the people themselves," he said.

Greens leader Bob Brown says the swing towards Labor will not stay once the celebration of the first female prime minister passes.

"We're not going to see our troops brought home from Afghanistan, we're not going to see the line held on the $12 billion in the budget from the mining boom tax, we're not going to see the necessary injection of funds into mental and dental health care as the Greens proposed it," he said.

Downer slams Rudd

This weekend Ms Gillard will be consulting with her colleagues about her new frontbench.

But the former foreign affairs minister, Alexander Downer, said it would not be in Australia's best interests for Mr Rudd to represent the Government overseas.

There is speculation the Ms Gillard may want to use Mr Rudd's diplomatic experience in the Foreign Affairs portfolio.

Mr Downer says he would prefer to have Stephen Smith remain in the job.

He also criticised Mr Rudd's foreign policy record as prime minister.

"He's not trusted by the Chinese leadership, he's undermined our relationship with India I think," Mr Downer said.

"We need to leave Mr Smith and make a fresh start with Julia Gillard. I think that's the best way to improve the relationships with our key neighbours."