Labour regains opinion poll ground in Australia

1.00pm

CANBERRA - Australia's opposition Labour party regained the lead in an opinion poll on Tuesday and narrowed the lead of the government in a second survey, as doubts were raised about the credibility of Prime Minister John Howard.

The Newspoll, published in the Australian newspaper, showed centre-left Labour's popularity has been boosted to 42 per cent from 39 per cent two weeks ago, while support for the conservative government plummeted to 39 per cent from 45 per cent.

Yet the ACNielsen poll, published in the Age newspaper, found both parties lost ground during the past month with support for the government dropping two percentage points to 42 per cent and the popularity of Labour slipping one point to 39 per cent.

"The polls bounce around a fair bit and we have seen that in recent times. My main poll is talking to the Australian people ... and increasingly they are saying let's have a government we can trust," Labour leader Mark Latham told Australian radio.

The polls come after Labour claimed a win in a fight with the eight-year-old government over changes to legislation backing the country's free trade agreement with the United States ahead of a likely October election.

They also come as Howard fends off accusations he misled voters over a crucial immigration issue on the eve of his 2001 re-election and took Australia to war in Iraq based on false assumptions and deceptions.

On a two-party preferred basis -- where minority party votes are distributed to the two main parties and ultimately decide the election -- Labour rose four points in the Newspoll to 54 per cent over the government's 46 per cent, which fell four points.

In the ACNielsen poll, Labour received a one point boost to 53 per cent on a two-party preferred basis, while the government dropped one point to 47 per cent.

Latham also narrowed Howard's lead in both polls as preferred prime minister but still lags 11 points in the Newspoll and eight points in the ACNielsen survey.

- REUTERS