CANBERRA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government has lost ground to the opposition, according to the nation's leading opinion poll.
The latest Newspoll, published on Sunday night, revealed that the governing Liberal National Party Coalition leads the Australian Labor Party 51-49 on a two-party preferred basis, compared to 53-47 late in July.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has extended his lead over Labor leader Anthony Albanese as the nation's preferred prime minister, leading by 48 percent to 30.
However, Albanese's net approval rating of positive seven was the best recorded by an opposition leader since December 2013.
Meanwhile Morrison's net approval rating fell from positive 15 to positive six points.
The Coalition won a third consecutive term in the general election of the government on May 18, despite every opinion poll projecting a comfortable Labor victory.
The first Newspoll since the election, released at the end of July, revealed that the government had benefited from a post-election bounce in the polls and led 53-47.
At the time the bounce was attributed to Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg delivering on its core election pledge by getting tax cuts worth 158 billion Australian dollars (107.1 billion U.S. dollars) through the Parliament.
Since then the government's legislative agenda has been lacking and its primary vote has fallen from 44 percent in July to 42 percent while Labor's rose from 33 to 34 percent.
The Labor received 33 percent of primary votes in the general election, significantly lower than the 37 percent projected by Newspoll, which is the party's lowest at an election in 85 years.
