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Poll shows support for Malcolm Turnbull's government slipping Poll shows support for Malcolm Turnbull's government slipping
(about 1 hour later)
Support for Malcolm Turnbull’s government has slipped while Labor’s popularity is on the rise, according to a new poll. Support for Malcolm Turnbull’s government has fallen four points over summer while the prime minister’s net approval rating has fallen 15 points, a new poll shows.
The Fairfax-Ipsos poll shows the Coalition government now leads the Labor opposition 52% to 48% after preferences, down from the 56% to 44% margin it recorded in the previous such survey in mid-November.
The result is also lower than the Coalition’s 53.5% two-party-preferred support when Tony Abbott won the 2013 election.
Related: Malcolm Turnbull's new cabinet and ministry: the full listRelated: Malcolm Turnbull's new cabinet and ministry: the full list
A total of 52% of voters surveyed in a nationwide Ipsos poll conducted for Fairfax chose the Coalition over Labor – down four percentage points from the last poll in November. The poll, taken from Thursday to Saturday, shows 62% of people approve of Turnbull’s performance compared with 24% who disapprove. The difference between the approval and disapproval scores produces a healthy net approval rating of 38, which is 15 points lower than in the previous poll.
Labor’s popularity on a two-party-preferred basis rose four percentage points to 48 in the same period. The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, continues to languish with just 30% approving of his performance and 55% disapproving, resulting in a net approval rating of minus 25 (an improvement of three points since the last poll).
The government’s 52% rating is less than that secured under Tony Abbott at the last election (53.5% on a two-party-preferred vote). The poll of 1,403 people was taken during a tough week for the government, when it came under sustained parliamentary pressure over a “private” trip to China in 2014 by the then assistant defence minister Stuart Robert.
Turnbull’s rating as preferred prime minister dipped five percentage points to 64%, while that of the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, crept higher by one percentage point to 19%. Robert, who attended an event celebrating a mining deal involving a major Liberal party donor and then met a Chinese vice minister, was forced out of the ministry after an investigation by a senior public servant found he had breached ministerial standards.
The poll of 1,403 people was taken between 11 and 13 February. Related: Stuart Robert loses job as minister after China trip furore
The poll, which has a margin of error of 2.6%, also follows the government’s decision to back away from the option of raising the goods and services tax as part of forthcoming tax reforms.
It shows support for increasing the GST has plummeted after a summer parliamentary break during which Shorten campaigned heavily against “a 15% tax on everything”.
Asked whether they backed an increase in the rate of the GST if accompanied by other tax cuts and compensation for those on a household income of less than $100,000 a year, about 37% said yes, down 15 points from the November poll.
Opposition to the proposal rose from 41% to 57%.
Pollsters also asked voters about the prospect of an early election. About 22% said they backed a federal election as soon as possible, while 74% said the government should serve its full term.
Turnbull announced a ministry reshuffle on Saturday before travelling to Queensland to campaign for three days.