SUPPORT for the government's plan to put a price on carbon has increased in the past month, and Julia Gillard has been given the thumbs-up for her handling of the war in Afghanistan and of education, in a poll that is otherwise horrific for Labor.

The latest Herald /Nielsen poll also shows the Gillard government's bid to seal an asylum seeker deal with Malaysia may have slowed the arrival of boats in recent weeks but a large majority of voters disapprove of her handling of the issue.

The issues.

As pressure intensified on the government to drop the Malaysian solution yesterday and opt for Nauru, the poll showed 76 per cent of voters disapprove of the way the Prime Minister has handled the asylum seeker issue in her 10 months in the job.

The Opposition is pressing the government to opt for Nauru, and yesterday the Nauruan government signed the United Nations Convention on Refugees.