This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Labor remains in the box seat to win the federal election in five days’ time, with Bill Shorten receiving a boost to his personal rating.

The latest Newspoll shows the campaign race remains tight, with the Coalition lifting its primary vote to 39%. But Labor still leads by 51% to 49% on a two-party-preferred basis, with its primary vote also up slightly to 37%.

Shorten has also closed the gap on Scott Morrison in the “better prime minister” stakes, the Australian reports on Monday. Just seven points now separate the pair, with the opposition leader lifting three points to 38% and Morrison falling back one point to 45%. Some 17% of voters remain undecided.

Both leaders will start their campaigns in Sydney on Monday morning. The prime minister will be focused on bricks and mortar when he hits the hustings on his 51st birthday.

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Morrison is promising to help young Australians break into the property market through a new home deposit scheme. A re-elected Coalition government would offer loan guarantees for first home buyers, allowing them to buy properties with deposits of just 5%.

Labor has committed to matching the scheme, blunting the prime minister’s pitch on housing affordability. But Morrison is also expected to attack Labor’s plans to limit negative gearing to new properties and curb capital gains tax relief, warning they will devastate the housing market.

The opposition leader is harnessing lingering anger with cuts in the Coalition’s 2014 budget as he heads into the home stretch. Five years after that budget went down like a lead balloon, Shorten is homing in on its “savage” cuts five days from Saturday’s federal election.

He said the budget had locked in two terms of cuts to schools, hospitals, pensions and essential services.

Labor is launching a national campaign with new material for candidates to hand out, an advertisement blitz and social media attacks.