The latest poll has the Coalition's primary vote lifting 7 percentage points since August to 45 per cent and Labor's falling 6 points to 30 per cent, its lowest primary vote since the election and 3 points lower than the 33 per cent it received on election day. There have been sharp falls for Labor in NSW and its stronghold of Victoria, Mr Shorten's home state.

The Greens slipped 2 points to 14 per cent.

Preferred PM

The public's admiration for Mr Turnbull has him leading Mr Shorten by 67 per cent to 21 per cent as preferred Prime Minister. Two months ago, Mr Shorten led Mr Abbott by 45 per cent to 39 per cent.

Mr Turnbull's approval rating has hit 68 per cent, just 1 point below the 69 per cent poll record Mr Rudd achieved in May 2008, six months after his election victory.

Mr Turnbull's disapproval rating is just 17 per cent, lower than Mr Rudd's 22 per cent in May 2008.

By contrast, Mr Shorten's approval rating has dropped 7 points to 32 per cent and his disapproval rating has risen 7 points to 56 per cent. These are his worst approval ratings since the 2013 federal election.


The poll of 1403 voters was taken from Thursday night to Saturday night at the end of what had been one of Labor's worst parliamentary weeks this term.

Its attempts to make an issue of Mr Turnbull's wealth and his significant investments in the Cayman Islands backfired when the Prime Minister gave a candid and staunch defence of his success which left many on Labor also feeling uncomfortable at the tactic.

Earlier in the week, Labor and the government made peace over the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement after Labor offered a compromised set of demands to protect Australian jobs but so as not to jeopardise the agreement. The poll showed the public supports the FTA by 54 per cent to 33 per cent.

Labor had long feared a switch from Mr Abbott to Mr Turnbull, and the poll bears out those fears. A run of similar polls over coming months would inevitable lead to speculation about Mr Shorten's leadership and whether there was anyone better to take on Mr Turnbull at the 2016 election.

Labor views

On Sunday, Labor frontbencher Ed Husic admitted Labor did not relish the prospect of a Turnbull prime ministership.

"I think the natural political reaction if I could put it, to the change of events, would be, we would have preferred to have Tony Abbott there from our own political perspective but the fact of the matter is, the country's better that he's not," he told Sky News.


"We think that it allows for the type of engagement and discussion, and to have difficult policy issues discussed in a much better way than both sides wondering whether or not a scare campaign would be launched, and being able to tackle those issues in the national interest.

"Malcolm Turnbull's a different proposition to Tony Abbott and will be a lot more difficult to deal with in that way.

"At least this way you can have both sides put their ideas on the table, and have it as a contest of ideas."

Labor will be alarmed at its plunging fortunes in Victoria where, according to the poll, its primary vote has dived from 37 per cent in August to 28 per cent now. It trails the Coalition 53-47 on a two-party basis in Victoria.

Because of the relatively small sample size, the Victorian numbers have 5.3 per cent margin of error.

In NSW, the Coalition leads on the primary vote by 49 per cent to 31 per cent and on a two-party-preferred basis by 55 per cent to 45 per cent.