Essential Report
Best leader of the Liberal Party
Q. Which of the following do you think would make the best leader of the Liberal Party?
Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | Jun 2014 | Aug 2015 | Mar 2016 | Aug 2017 | Dec 2017 | Apr 2018 | Jul 2018 | |||
Julie Bishop | 23% | 24% | 25% | 28% | 20% | 4% | 17% | 12% | 20% | 19% | 17% | 16% | ||
Malcolm Turnbull | 15% | 20% | 18% | 15% | 5% | 31% | 24% | 39% | 25% | 21% | 24% | 28% | ||
Scott Morrison | 10% | 5% | 22% | 1% | 7% | 1% | 3% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | ||
Tony Abbott | 9% | 6% | 12% | 2% | 17% | 18% | 18% | 9% | 10% | 10% | 11% | 10% | ||
Peter Dutton | 4% | 3% | 3% | 4% | 8% | 3% | 4% | 3% | 5% | |||||
Christopher Pyne | 1% | 1% | 1% | 3% | 1% | <1% | 1% | 1% | 3% | 2% | 2% | 2% | ||
Someone else | 13% | 17% | 4% | 21% | 22% | 19% | 13% | 15% | 13% | 15% | 14% | 14% | ||
Don’t know | 25% | 22% | 14% | 26% | 20% | 21% | 22% | 21% | 25% | 27% | 27% | 24% |
23% (up 7% since July) think Julie Bishop would make the best leader of the Liberal Party, 15% prefer Malcolm Turnbull (down 13%), 10% Scott Morrison (up 8%) and 9% prefer Tony Abbott (down 1%). 13% (down 1%) prefer someone else.
Among Liberal/National voters, 25% prefer Julie Bishop (up 11%), 22% Scott Morrison (up 20%), 18% Malcolm Turnbull (down 33%) and 12% Tony Abbott (up 1%).

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In this week's report:
- Performance of Scott Morrison
- Performance of Anthony Albanese
- Preferred Prime Minister
- Views towards re-electing the federal Coalition government
- Party trust to handle issues
- Importance of Australia’s international reputation
- Scott Morrison’s impact on Australia’s international reputation
- Views towards Australia’s international reputation
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