Approval of the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott

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%).