Australian governing coalition trailing opposition despite new year bounce: poll

Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-29 12:28:58|Editor: Lu Hui
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CANBERRA, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Australia's governing Liberal-National Party coalition (LNP) has experienced a revival, returning to its best opinion poll position since October 2018.

According to the latest Newspoll released on Tuesday, the LNP would receive 37 percent of primary votes at an election compared to 38 percent for the opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP).

The result represents a five-point turnaround from the last Newspoll of 2018, which had the ALP leading primary votes 41-35.

As a result, the ALP leads the government 53-47 on a two-party preferred basis, an improvement for the LNP from the 55-45 recorded in December but a margin that would still see the ALP win the general election in a landslide.

The poll of 1,634 voters was taken in late January while Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg criticized ALP leader Bill Shorten's tax-and-spend plan.

"As the election gets closer, Australians will see a very stark contrast between our economic record and the future plans of the government and how it can improve people's lives and circumstances over the next decade," Morrison told News Corp Australia on Monday night.

However, Morrison suffered a significant setback when three prominent government ministers announced they would quit politics at the election.

Despite his party's woes, Morrison was identified by 43 percent of voters as their preferred prime minister compared to 36 percent who picked Shorten.

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