Abbott, Election, leadership, Liberal
Q. Do you think Tony Abbott is the best person to lead the Liberal Party to the next election or would the Liberal Party have a better chance of winning the next election if they changed leaders?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | |
| Tony Abbott is the best person to lead the Liberal Party to the next election | 29% | 14% | 62% |
| The Liberal Party would have a better chance of winning the next election if they changed leaders | 47% | 65% | 25% |
| Don’t know | 24% | 21% | 13% |
47% of respondents thought the Liberal Party would have a better chance of winning the next election if they changed leader – 29% thought Tony Abbott was the best person to be leader.
Liberal/National voters supported Tony Abbott as leader by 62% to 25%. 79% of Greens voters and 49% of other/independent voters thought the Liberal Party should change their leader. Men (34%) and those aged 65+ (34%) were the strongest supporters of Tony Abbott remaining as leader. Comments »
Gillard, Labor, leadership, Prime Minister, rudd
Q7. Who do you think would make the better Prime Minister out of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | 15 Feb 10 | ||
| Kevin Rudd | 36% | 56% | 26% | 45% | |
| Julia Gillard | 33% | 30% | 36% | 26% | |
| Don’t know | 31% | 14% | 38% | 29% |
Respondents were fairly evenly split over whether Kevin Rudd (36%) or Julia Gillard (33%) would make the better Prime Minister. This is a substantial change since this question was last asked in February – Julia Gillard up 7% and Kevin Rudd down 9%.
Labor voters preferred Kevin Rudd (56% to 30%) and Liberal voters preferred Julia Gillard (36% to 26%). Greens voters preferred Julia Gillard by 62% to 18%.
Men show greater support for Kevin Rudd (40%/33%) whereas women were evenly divided (32%/34%). Comments »
Q. Thinking about the Government Ministers and the Opposition Shadow Ministers in Federal Parliament, who has the best leadership team – Kevin Rudd and the Labor Party or Tony Abbott and the Coalition?
| Kevin Rudd and the Labor Party | 47% |
| Tony Abbott and the Coalition | 31% |
| Don’t know | 23% |
47% think that Kevin Rudd and the Labor Party have the best leadership team and 31% prefer Tony Abbott and the Liberal Party team.
95% of Labor voters think the Labor team is better and 75% of Liberal/National voters prefer the Liberal team. Greens voters prefer the Labor team over the Liberal team (by 55% to 13%), as do other party and independent voters (45% to 24%).
People aged under 35 prefer the Labor team 47% to 18%. Comments »
approval of PM, leader, leader attributes, leadership, Prime Minister, rudd
Q. Which of the following describe your opinion of the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd?
| 29 June 09 | 7 Dec 09 | 10 May 10 | Change | |
| Intelligent | 84% | 82% | 73% | -9% |
| Hard-working | 83% | 77% | 76% | -1% |
| A capable leader | 72% | 69% | 55% | -14% |
| Demanding | 67% | 60% | 69% | +9% |
| Arrogant | 46% | 49% | 57% | +8% |
| Out of touch with ordinary people | 41% | 45% | 55% | +10% |
| Understands the problems facing Australia | 67% | 59% | 53% | -6% |
| Visionary | 49% | 48% | 37% | -11% |
| Superficial | 40% | 41% | 52% | +11% |
| Good in a crisis | 60% | 58% | 44% | -14% |
| Narrow-minded | 32% | 36% | 43% | +7% |
| Down to earth | 56% | 55% | 47% | -8% |
| Too inflexible | 32% | 38% | 45% | +7% |
| Complacent | 28% | 38% | 38% | – |
| More honest than most politicians | 47% | 49% | 39% | -10% |
| Trustworthy | * | 51% | 41% | -10% |
*Not asked in June 2009
Most people consider Rudd hard working (76%), intelligent (73%) and demanding (69%).
Since this question was last asked in December 2009, Kevin Rudd has lost points on most positive qualities including being a capable leader
(-14%), good in a crisis (-14%), visionary (-11%) and trustworthy (-10%). His ratings have increased significantly in terms of being superficial (+11) and out of touch with ordinary people (+10%). Comments »
Abbott, Approval of opposition leader, leader, leader attributes, leadership
Q. Which of the following describe your opinion of the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott?
| 7 Dec 09 | 10 May 10 | Change | |
| Intelligent | 71% | 72% | +1% |
| Hard-working | 69% | 71% | +2% |
| A capable leader | 46% | 50% | +4% |
| Demanding | 53% | 52% | -1% |
| Arrogant | 53% | 54% | +1% |
| Out of touch with ordinary people | 53% | 51% | -2% |
| Understands the problems facing Australia | 46% | 49% | +3% |
| Visionary | 34% | 35% | +1% |
| Superficial | 42% | 44% | +2% |
| Good in a crisis | 39% | 40% | +1% |
| Narrow-minded | 52% | 53% | +1% |
| Down to earth | 46% | 50% | +4% |
| Too inflexible | 45% | 47% | +2% |
| Complacent | 31% | 30% | -1% |
| More honest than most politicians | 31% | 33% | +2% |
| Trustworthy | 36% | 39% | +3% |
*Not asked in June 2009 poll
When it comes to rating Tony Abbott, most people think he is intelligent (72%) and hard-working (71%), yet arrogant (54%), narrow-minded (53%) and demanding (52%).
There were few substantial changes Tony Abbott’s ratings compared to the December 2009 results. His rating for being a capable leader improved 4% to 50%, as did his rating for being down to earth.
leadership, Liberal, malcolm turnbull, Turnbull
Q. Do you think Malcolm Turnbull should now resign from Parliament, stay in parliament on the backbench until the next election or challenge for the leadership again before the next election?
| % | |
| Resign | 18% |
| Stay on backbench | 45% |
| Challenge again | 15% |
| Don’t know | 23% |
Just under half (45%) think that Malcolm Turnbull should stay in parliament on the backbench until the next election, 18% think he should resign and 15% think Turnbull should challenge for the leadership again before the next election.
Coalition voters were more likely to think that Turnbull should stay in parliament on the backbench (62%), while Green (28%) and Labor (18%) voters were more likely to think Turnbull should challenge again for the leadership.
Males were more likely to think Turnbull should resign (20%) while females were more likely to indicate that they don’t know what Turnbull should do (29%).