Approval of the Opposition Leader

Q. Do you strongly approve, approve, disapprove or strongly disapprove of the job Tony Abbott is doing as Opposition Leader?

	Malcolm Turnbull									Tony Abbott
	12 Jan 09	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
Strongly approve	4%	3%	3%	2%	4%	2%	3%	3%	2%	7%
Approve	37%	29%	25%	28%	20%	20%	24%	26%	23%	27%
Disapprove	21%	26%	31%	28%	31%	30%	35%	30%	33%	18%
Strongly disapprove	9%	17%	17%	21%	26%	28%	18%	20%	22%	18%
Don’t know	29%	24%	24%	21%	19%	20%	21%	20%	19%	31%
Total approve	41%	32%	28%	30%	24%	22%	27%	29%	25%	34%
Total disapprove	30%	43%	48%	49%	57%	58%	53%	50%	55%	36%

34% of respondents approve of the job Tony Abbott is doing as Opposition Leader, 36% disapprove and 31% don’t know.

Perception followed party lines – Coalition voters were more likely to approve of the job Abbott is doing as Opposition Leader (65%) while Labor voters were more likely to disapprove (55%).   15% of Coalition voters disapprove of the job Abbott is doing as Opposition Leader.

Abbott’s approval rating is nine percentage points higher than the score Turnbull received right before he was replaced as Opposition Leader.    However, Turnbull’s approval rating when he took on the leadership role in September 2009 was 36% and his disapproval rating was 30%.  This is a slightly better result than that scored by Abbott after his succession to the leadership position.