Daniel Hurst, political correspondent Monday 8 December 2014

Prime minister says his government is not to first to have a ‘rough patch’ as Ipsos poll shows Abbott lagging behind Shorten on trust and competence

Asked to nominate their preferred prime minister, 47% of respondents selected Bill Shorten (left) and 39% chose Tony Abbott. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP Image

Tony Abbott has said his government is not the first to have a “rough patch in the polls” after a new survey showed the prime minister’s personal approval rating dropping sharply.

The latest Ipsos poll published by Fairfax Media on Monday also suggested Abbott was lagging behind the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, on the question of trust and competence.

Labor was leading the Coalition 52% to 48% based on preference flows at the last election, according to the poll.

Several other polls marking the end of the final parliamentary sitting of the year showed the government lagging behind Labor: the Galaxy poll published by News Corp’s Sunday papers suggested the opposition’s lead was 55% to 45%, while Newspoll in the Australian last week placed the lead at 54% to 46%.

Abbott played down the latest poll results on Monday. “This is not the first government to have a rough patch in the polls,” he told Seven’s Sunrise program.

“The Howard government, the Thatcher government, the Reagan government all had rough patches in the polls. I am not the first leader to be subject to a bit of speculation.

“But I think that the public are also focused on performance and this is a government which has fundamentally kept faith when it comes to the big commitments we made to the Australian people.”

The Ipsos poll showed Abbott’s net satisfaction rating – the percentage of people happy with his performance minus the percentage who are unhappy – declined by 12 points in one month to minus 19.

Shorten’s net approval rating was in positive territory: it increased two points to five.

Asked to nominate their preferred prime minister, 47% of respondents selected Shorten and 39% chose Abbott.

The poll also tested voters’ perceptions of each leader’s attributes.

About 44% of the 1,401 phone poll respondents thought Shorten was trustworthy, while only 36% said the same about Abbott. Half of all respondents (50%) said Abbott was competent, compared with 58% for Shorten.

Shorten also led Abbott on the questions of having the confidence of the party, being open to ideas, and having a firm grasp of social policy – but was also more likely to be easily influenced by minority groups.

Abbott was ahead of Shorten on the question of having a clear vision for Australia’s future and the ability to make things happen. Abbott was narrowly leading Shorten on having a firm grasp of foreign and economic policy.

The Ipsos poll was taken from Thursday to Saturday, at the end of a parliamentary fortnight that included mixed messages over the future of the GP co-payment and the Senate’s defeat of the higher education package. Abbott has described 2014 as a “year of achievement” but has promised to tweak his paid parental leave scheme in an attempt to get it through the Senate.

New poll: Tony Abbott's personal approval rating drops sharply | Australia news | The Guardian