Gillard brushes off poll slump as Abbott surges
By chief political correspondent Simon Cullen
Updated 8 minutes ago
Video: Abbott overtakes Gillard as preferred PM (ABC News)
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Map: Australia
Julia Gillard has brushed off new opinion poll results which show voter support for Labor has plunged and Tony Abbott has overtaken her as preferred prime minister.
The Nielsen poll, published in Fairfax newspapers, shows Labor’s primary vote has dropped five points since December to 30 per cent, while the Coalition’s has risen four points to 47 per cent.
After preferences, the Coalition has a thumping election-winning lead of 56 per cent to 44 per cent.
The figures also reveal a dramatic reversal in who voters would prefer as prime minister.
Support for Mr Abbott has jumped nine points to 49 per cent, while Ms Gillard’s support has dropped five points to 45 per cent.
Asked this morning what has gone wrong, Ms Gillard declined to comment on the latest poll results.
“If I spent my time worrying about and commentating on opinion polls, then I wouldn’t have the time to get my job done,” she told Channel Seven.
“And the job is more important. So each and every day I just let that wash through and I focus on what I need to do as prime minister so that we’ve got a strong economy today and everything we need for families today and we’re building a better future.”
According to the Nielsen poll, a significant majority of voters prefer Kevin Rudd over Ms Gillard as Labor leader, although that is largely driven by Coalition supporters.
Among Labor voters, Ms Gillard remains more popular.
Even before today’s poll, there was a sense of despondency within Labor ranks over the Government’s performance, and internal tensions over the possibility of a Rudd comeback.
Last week, the former prime minister said those speculating about a leadership change should take a “very long cold shower”. He then suggested they should “jump in the ice bath”.
Yesterday, Mr Rudd said: “It’s time this debate was put in cryogenic storage. Frankly, it ain’t happening.”
‘Poll fatigue’
Video: Paul Howes speaks to ABC News Breakfast (ABC News)
This morning Australian Workers’ Union national secretary Paul Howes, who was instrumental in dumping Mr Rudd from the top job in 2010 following a slump in the polls, says he regrets spending so much time worrying about the polls.
“I want to see some news outlet do a poll of all Australians about how much people care about polls,” Mr Howes told ABC News 24.
“Because it kind of seems to me that this nation’s suffering from poll fatigue.
“We can’t go for more than one week without Newspoll doing a poll, AC Nielsen doing a poll, Essential doing a poll, UMR doing a poll or having Roy Morgan doing a poll, and everyone getting overly excited about it.
“Let’s actually start focusing the national conversation back on the issues that matter, and not based on telephone samples of a couple of thousand voters taken over a weekend.”
Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten, who was also involved in replacing Mr Rudd as prime minister, has reaffirmed his loyalty to Ms Gillard.
“What people want us to do is move beyond the gossip of personalities into the substance of what the Government’s doing for me and my family,” Mr Shorten told ABC radio.
“I’d submit to you that manufacturing jobs, National Disability Insurance Scheme, better education, reasonable economic numbers compared to the rest of the world – that’s what we’re doing.”
The Nielsen poll shows more voters disapprove of Mr Abbott’s performance than approve, but the margin has narrowed to 13 points compared with 29 point gap two months ago.
More voters would prefer Malcolm Turnbull to be opposition leader over Mr Abbott, although his strongest support comes from Labor and Greens supporters.
Among Coalition voters, Mr Abbott is more popular.
Topics:federal-government, alp, gillard-julia, government-and-politics, australia
First posted 10 hours 22 minutes ago
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