Q. Regardless of your likely party choice for the next election, which of the leaders – Kevin Rudd or Tony Abbott – do you think overall would be the best Prime Minister?
| 21 Dec 09 | 22 March 10 | |
| Kevin Rudd | 51% | 50% |
| Tony Abbott | 25% | 30% |
| Don’t know | 24% | 19% |
When it comes to a choice between Rudd and Abbott as the better Prime Minister, 50% selected Rudd and 30% selected Abbott. The results for Rudd shifted slightly (-1%) since we last asked this question in December 2009. However, there has been a five percent increase in the number of people that prefer Abbott and a decrease in the number of people that don’t know (-5%).
Results followed party lines – 92% of Labor voters chose Rudd and 74% of Coalition voters chose Abbott.
64% of Green voters selected Rudd and 11% of Green voters selected Abbott.
People aged 65 years and over were more likely to think Abbott would make a better Prime Minister (42%), 18 – 24 year olds were more likely to indicate they don’t know who would make a better Prime Minister (28%).