Canberra, (Samajweekly) Australia’s governing coalition has restored its lead over the opposition Labor Party, a poll has found.
According to the latest Newspoll, which was published on Sunday night, the coalition leads Labor 51-49 on a two-party preferred basis, a slight improvement for the government from a 50-50 deadlock in late August, reports Xinhua news agency.
It revealed a two-point rise in the coalition primary vote to 43 per cent, while Labor’s fell to a near-historical low of 34 per cent.
The poll of more than 2,000 voters was taken after Prime Minister Scott Morrison released his plans for a gas-led recovery from the Covid-19 economic crisis and as a second wave of infections in Victoria that has caused more than 700 deaths continued to subside.
Despite Morrison’s ongoing feud with state and territory leaders over domestic border closures, the poll found that the prime minister remained popular among voters.
Satisfaction with his performance rose one point to 65 per cent while dissatisfaction fell to 31 per cent.
It marks eight consecutive polls with a net satisfaction rating above 30 per cent for the prime minister, an unprecedented turnaround from a negative 22 per cent rating at the height of the bushfire crisis in January.
By comparison, Labor leader Anthony Albanese’s rating has fallen from positive 9 per cent in January to negative 1 per cent.
Almost 60 per cent of respondents to the poll chose Morrison as their preferred Prime Minister, giving him a 32-point lead over Albanese on 27 per cent.
