Labor has taken a 10-point lead over the Coalition, with 55-45 on a two-party preferred basis, according to the Fairfax-Ipsos poll published today.
If an election were held last weekend, the government would have lost 24 seats.
The poll shows Turnbull’s personal approval rating has also dived to 40 per cent, but he still narrowly leads against Opposition Leader Bill Shorten as preferred prime minister.
The nationwide poll of 1400 people, conducted from Wednesday to Saturday last week, follows the West Australian Liberal party’s disastrous state election result a fortnight ago.
A Newspoll in The Australian last Monday showed Labor leading the Coalition 52-48 per cent on a two-party basis, with the Coalition’s primary vote rising three points to 37 per cent over the previous three weeks.
The Fairfax-Ipsos poll comes as there’s talk of a reshuffle in the Turnbull government.
Deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop on Sunday fully backed Turnbull as a “can-do” prime minister who would take the Coalition to the next election.
She said Turnbull had her support and that of the “vast majority” of the party room to stay on as prime minister.
Labor senator Sam Dastyari held nothing back when describing the poll numbers for the government.
“These are s****house numbers for the prime minister of Australia,” he said.
“Let’s be clear, they’re not rumblings anymore about Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership, there are screams coming out of that building … If Malcolm Turnbull’s polling remains as terrible as it is, it’s hardly surprising that the Liberals are now looking for anyone but Turnbull.”
The poll also found the Greens primary vote rising to 16 per cent.
“The numbers come and go,” Greens senator Janet Rice said.
“The Greens have been around for 25 years. We’re continuing to build our support and that will continue because people like what we have to say,” she said.
Turnbull used poor opinion polls as his reasoning to challenge then prime minister Tony Abbott for the leadership.
Parliament resumes this week before breaking until the May 9 budget.
– AAP
