Abbott cuts into Rudd's lead: poll

Tony Abbott

AAP

Poll

Who would you prefer as Prime Minister?

This poll ended on 29 June 2010.

Kevin Rudd

58%

Tony Abbott

37%

Neither

3%

This is not a scientific poll. The results reflect only the opinions of those who chose to participate.

A NEW poll shows Tony Abbott has cut into Kevin Rudd's lead as preferred prime minister within a week of the newly elected leader of the opposition reversing the Liberals' stand on climate change and rejecting Labor's ETS.

As the Liberals declared clear victories in the Melbourne and Sydney by-elections of Higgins and Bradfield, the results were mirrored in Newspoll, which showed Mr Abbott outpointing his predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull, as the preferred Liberal leader, The Australian newspaper says.

After being Liberal leader for fewer than five days, Mr Abbott was able to claim easy victories in both Liberal-held seats on primary votes on Saturday night while the Liberal Party primary vote across the nation lifted, according to Newspoll.

The Newspoll survey, conducted from Friday to Sunday for The Australian, showed a rise of four percentage points in the Liberals' primary vote, taking the coalition's support to 38 per cent compared with the government's unchanged 43 per cent.

The government still has an overwhelming two-party-preferred vote of 56 to 44 per cent, but Mr Abbott has improved on Mr Turnbull's last position as preferred prime minister and won strong endorsement among Liberal voters.

Support for Mr Rudd as preferred prime minister fell five percentage points at the weekend from 65 to 60 per cent and Mr Abbott started on 23 per cent, a rise of nine points compared with Mr Turnbull's 14 per cent the previous weekend.

Mr Abbott described the poll result as an encouraging start for his leadership.

"There's a hell of a long way to go," he told ABC Radio, adding Labor was still a short-priced favourite to win the next election.

Outgoing Liberal frontbencher Helen Coonan says Mr Abbott had made a connection with the party's base in a very significant way.

"He's very engaging," she told Sky News, adding the Newspoll results were all very positive steps for Mr Abbott's leadership.

Mr Abbott was interested in reaching out to all parts of the constituency, Senator Coonan said.

"And he'll be particularly interested, no doubt, in being able to engage better with women," she said, when asked about her leader's record on issues such as abortion.

"I think he's realised that some of those sharper edges are not something that women welcome and he's done a lot to moderate those views."