Australia: PM Kevin Rudd with record approval ratings

[Tender Branson]

Better than Obama's:

Mr 74% Rudd widens gulf over Coalition

* Tony Wright
* March 30, 2009



THE Government has soared on the shoulders of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's increasing popularity to its biggest lead over the Opposition since the federal election 16 months ago.

Despite controversy over Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon's contacts with a Chinese businesswoman and recent Senate legislative blockages, Labor has climbed to claim 58 per cent of the two-party preferred vote.

The Coalition is languishing on 42 per cent and the popularity of its leader, Malcolm Turnbull, is dropping to danger levels.

Today's Age/Nielsen poll shows Mr Rudd is now only a whisker from equalling Bob Hawke's record 75 per cent popularity rating.

However, the poll finds that voters are fast losing faith with Mr Turnbull as Opposition Leader. For the first time, there are more voters who disapprove of his performance (47 per cent) than those who approve (43 per cent).

The Age/Nielsen poll finds there has been a 5 per cent swing towards Labor on both the primary and two-party preferred votes since the November 2007 federal election.

This takes Labor to 47 per cent of the primary vote (up 2 points since the last poll in November last year) and drops the Coalition to just 37 per cent (down 2 points since November).

The national poll of 1400 voters was taken from Wednesday to Friday last week.

The controversy over Defence Department officials investigating their own minister, Mr Fitzgibbon, over his contacts with Chinese businesswoman Helen Liu, broke in The Age on Thursday morning.

Mr Rudd, who left Australia last Monday to meet new US President Barack Obama in Washington and is now in London for the Group of 20 summit, enjoys a 74 per cent approval rating, with only 22 per cent disapproving.

This is a 4 percentage point jump in the Prime Minister's approval figures in the past four months.

Mr Rudd has been Australia's second most popular prime minister on the 37-year-old Nielsen scale since May last year, when he first topped John Howard's best figure of 67 per cent, recorded in January 2005.

The latest finding leaves him only 1 point behind Mr Hawke's 75 per cent, recorded in November 1984.

"Kevin Rudd's popularity continues to dominate perceptions of leadership in national politics in much the way Bob Hawke's popularity dominated in the mid-1980s," Nielsen pollster John Stirton said. "The impact of Mr Rudd's dominance is that Opposition leaders will inevitably struggle."

The Rudd Government, which has faced significant hurdles getting its full legislative program through the Senate, also received majority backing — 57 per cent to 36 per cent — on the question of whether an early election was justified if the Government continued to have such difficulties.

However, Mr Stirton said the finding did not mean voters would welcome an early election: "While a majority of voters may believe Kevin Rudd would be justified in calling an early election, this does not mean voters think he should call an early election," he said.

Respondents to the poll showed overwhelming preference for Mr Rudd as Prime Minister. He was preferred by 69 per cent — up 4 points — while the number of those preferring Mr Turnbull (24 per cent) had shrunk by 3 points since November.

The 45 percentage-point lead is the biggest Mr Rudd has had over Mr Turnbull, although his lead over Brendan Nelson averaged 48 points.

The poll also found that former Liberal treasurer Peter Costello remained the popular choice over Mr Turnbull for the position of Liberal leader — though the gap had narrowed from 14 points to 8 points since August last year.

Mr Costello, a backbencher who has not publicly expressed a desire for the leadership, was the choice of 47 per cent of respondents, while Mr Turnbull was preferred by 39 per cent. In August 2008, Mr Costello was the choice of 49 per cent, to 35 per cent for Mr Turnbull.

"Alternative leaders within the Opposition will often be more popular than the leader," Mr Stirton said.

"This is what happened to the Liberals in the 1980s, when John Howard and Andrew Peacock were often more popular in the role of alternative leader than as leader of their party."

http://www.theage.com.au/national/mr-74-rudd-widens-gulf-over-coalition-20090329-9fki.html?page=-1

[Platypus]

For what it's worth, I disapprove of Rudd, would prefer Turnbull, but would still vote Labor TPP.

[Bono]

For what it's worth, I disapprove of Rudd, would prefer Turnbull, but would still vote Labor TPP.

Yea, how could you face your friends if you voted liberal.

Rudd is a tyrant wannabe who should be hanged for trying to censor the internet.

[frihetsivrare]

For what it's worth, I disapprove of Rudd, would prefer Turnbull, but would still vote Labor TPP.

Yea, how could you face your friends if you voted liberal.

Rudd is a tyrant wannabe who should be hanged for trying to censor the internet.

I wouldn't go so far as hanging, and internet censorship was tried under John Howard.

[Bono]

For what it's worth, I disapprove of Rudd, would prefer Turnbull, but would still vote Labor TPP.

Yea, how could you face your friends if you voted liberal.

Rudd is a tyrant wannabe who should be hanged for trying to censor the internet.

I wouldn't go so far as hanging, and internet censorship was tried under John Howard.

Yea, Howard was just as bad, he also banned guns.

[JohnFKennedy]

Yea, how could you face your friends if you voted liberal.

Isn't it fun to assume that those with differing political views with you only have them to be 'cool'?

[Bono]

Yea, how could you face your friends if you voted liberal.

Isn't it fun to assume that those with differing political views with you only have them to be 'cool'?

Yea, actually it is.

But I digress. If someone says that they would prefer the liberal leader as PM than the labor one, and then proceeds to say they'll still vote labor, I think I'm allowed to assume a little irrationality on their part.

[Serenity Now]

Ruddy hell!

[k-onmmunist]

For what it's worth, I disapprove of Rudd, would prefer Turnbull, but would still vote Labor TPP.

Yea, how could you face your friends if you voted liberal.

Rudd is a tyrant wannabe who should be hanged for trying to censor the internet.

This.

[Joe Republic]

Yea, how could you face your friends if you voted liberal.

Isn't it fun to assume that those with differing political views with you only have them to be 'cool'?

Yea, actually it is.

But I digress. If someone says that they would prefer the liberal leader as PM than the labor one, and then proceeds to say they'll still vote labor, I think I'm allowed to assume a little irrationality on their part.

You don't think it's possible to separate one's opinions of political parties from the opinions of their leaders?

[Bono]

Yea, how could you face your friends if you voted liberal.

Isn't it fun to assume that those with differing political views with you only have them to be 'cool'?

Yea, actually it is.

But I digress. If someone says that they would prefer the liberal leader as PM than the labor one, and then proceeds to say they'll still vote labor, I think I'm allowed to assume a little irrationality on their part.

You don't think it's possible to separate one's opinions of political parties from the opinions of their leaders?

It certainly is, but acting on it in a parliamentary system is cognitively dissonant, because unlike in a presidential system of loose party affiliations like the US, the leader really has all the power.

[Joe Republic]

Okay, well perhaps you could have invited Hugh to justify his post (if he wants to) without breaking out the facetiousness and the rolled eyes?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I detest Rudd.

[Platypus]

Yea, how could you face your friends if you voted liberal.

Isn't it fun to assume that those with differing political views with you only have them to be 'cool'?

Yea, actually it is.

But I digress. If someone says that they would prefer the liberal leader as PM than the labor one, and then proceeds to say they'll still vote labor, I think I'm allowed to assume a little irrationality on their part.

The Liberal backbench scares the sheet out of me. Sure the leader has a lot of power, but not enough to silence the Tony abbotts, Sophie Mirabellas and Wilson Tuckeys of this world.

If it was a Presidential election, i'd vote Turnbull. It isn't, and so I will most likely TPP the ALP. Not that it matters much in my seat, but it does have an effect in the Senate, especially if we end up with a double dissolution.

(I'm also expecting to vote Liberal in the state election next year, fwiw)

[Smid]

Yea, how could you face your friends if you voted liberal.

Isn't it fun to assume that those with differing political views with you only have them to be 'cool'?

Yea, actually it is.

But I digress. If someone says that they would prefer the liberal leader as PM than the labor one, and then proceeds to say they'll still vote labor, I think I'm allowed to assume a little irrationality on their part.

The Liberal backbench scares the sheet out of me. Sure the leader has a lot of power, but not enough to silence the Tony abbotts, Sophie Mirabellas and Wilson Tuckeys of this world.

If it was a Presidential election, i'd vote Turnbull. It isn't, and so I will most likely TPP the ALP. Not that it matters much in my seat, but it does have an effect in the Senate, especially if we end up with a double dissolution.

(I'm also expecting to vote Liberal in the state election next year, fwiw)

Senate... there are some exceptional Victorian Liberal Senators you could still consider.

[Platypus]

Yea, how could you face your friends if you voted liberal.

Isn't it fun to assume that those with differing political views with you only have them to be 'cool'?

Yea, actually it is.

But I digress. If someone says that they would prefer the liberal leader as PM than the labor one, and then proceeds to say they'll still vote labor, I think I'm allowed to assume a little irrationality on their part.

The Liberal backbench scares the sheet out of me. Sure the leader has a lot of power, but not enough to silence the Tony abbotts, Sophie Mirabellas and Wilson Tuckeys of this world.

If it was a Presidential election, i'd vote Turnbull. It isn't, and so I will most likely TPP the ALP. Not that it matters much in my seat, but it does have an effect in the Senate, especially if we end up with a double dissolution.

(I'm also expecting to vote Liberal in the state election next year, fwiw)

Senate... there are some exceptional Victorian Liberal Senators you could still consider.

Well, if there's a double dissolution i'll try and get in contact with a few. I'd vote for someone like Troeth over someone like Conroy, possibly.