Australia's preferred leader:
Julia Gillard 43 (down 2 points)
Tony Abbott 45 (up 3 points)
The Australian federal government's deal for asylum-seeker swaps with Malaysia has taken its toll on PM Julia Gillard with a new poll showing the prime minister's ratings have gone south.
Support for Gillard has dropped to a record low as voters also turned their backs on the government's fourth Budget.
The latest Newspoll was the second out today showing declining support for the prime minister, while Labor continues to lag behind the coalition on a two-party preferred basis, 54 to 46 per cent.
The results of the weekend poll, published in The Australian newspaper, show Ms Gillard's personal standing is lower than that of Kevin Rudd when he was replaced.
The Newspoll showed Ms Gillard's satisfaction rate has dropped four percentage points to 34 per cent in the past fortnight, her lowest level since February when it was 50 per cent.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's satisfaction rating remains steady at 38 per cent, the same level he had in February, but down four points in the past fortnight.
A Nielsen poll in today's Fairfax newspapers also shows Ms Gillard's approval declined two points to a record 43 per cent, while her disapproval was up two points to 52 per cent, also a record for her.
The Nielsen poll showed Mr Abbott's approval rose three points to 45 per cent while his disapproval was down one to 50 per cent.
The Newspoll shows Labor's primary vote remained unchanged at 33 per cent, but the coalition had improved in the past two weeks, gaining two percentage points to sit on 46 per cent support.
The Greens primary vote had dropped two points to sit on 10 per cent.
But in terms of people's perceptions of how well off they are financially, just 11 per cent believe they are better off today, compared to 19 per cent at the same time last year, and 41 per cent said they were worse off, compared to 30 per cent last year.
- AAP
