Q. Do you strongly approve, approve, disapprove or strongly disapprove of the job Tony Abbott is doing as Opposition Leader?
| Malcolm Turnbull | Tony Abbott | ||||||||||
| 9 Feb 09 | 30 Mar 09 | 18 May 09 | 29 Jun 09 | 10 Aug 09 | 28 Sept 09 | 9 Nov 09 | 30 Nov 09 | 14 Dec 09 | 18 Jan 10 | 22 Feb 10 | |
| Strongly approve | 3% | 3% | 2% | 4% | 2% | 3% | 3% | 2% | 7% | 5% | 12% |
| Approve | 29% | 25% | 28% | 20% | 20% | 24% | 26% | 23% | 27% | 32% | 33% |
| Disapprove | 26% | 31% | 28% | 31% | 30% | 35% | 30% | 33% | 18% | 20% | 20% |
| Strongly disapprove | 17% | 17% | 21% | 26% | 28% | 18% | 20% | 22% | 18% | 17% | 16% |
| Don’t know | 24% | 24% | 21% | 19% | 20% | 21% | 20% | 19% | 31% | 26% | 18% |
| Total approve | 32% | 28% | 30% | 24% | 22% | 27% | 29% | 25% | 34% | 37% | 45% |
| Total disapprove | 43% | 48% | 49% | 57% | 58% | 53% | 50% | 55% | 36% | 37% | 36% |
Just under half (45%) of those surveyed approve of the job Tony Abbott is doing as Opposition Leader, 36% disapprove and 18% don’t know. This gives Tony Abbott a net approval rating of +9%.
This is the highest approval rating that has been recorded for Abbott in the Essential Report thus far and higher than Turnbull ever scored in our polling.
Results followed party lines – Coalition voters were more likely to approve of the job Abbott is doing (79%), while Labor voters were more likely to disapprove (58%). 28% of Labor voters approve of the job Abbott is doing as Opposition Leader.
68% of Green voters disapprove of the job Abbott is doing as Opposition Leader and 19% of these same voters approve.
People aged 65 years and over were more likely to approve of the job Abbott is doing (68%), while younger voters were more likely to indicate they don’t know (37%).
Males were more likely than females to approve of the job Abbott is doing as Opposition Leader (47% v 43%).