Australia's new Prime Minister has received a boost from a respected opinion poll, but the fallout lingers from a bitter party battle as the leader he ousted attacked the credibility of his new Treasurer.
A Newspoll published in the Australian newspaper yesterday found that Malcolm Turnbull is Australia's most popularPrime Minister in more than five years - a period that covers the terms of Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott.
The poll found 55 per cent of respondents preferred him as Prime Minister - 18 points more than Abbott received when the last poll was taken two weeks ago.
Turnbull also opened a 34-point lead over Opposition leader Bill Shorten, who had led Abbott in most Newspolls this year.
Newspoll also puts Turnbull's coalition Government ahead of the centre-left Labor Party opposition for the first time since April last year.
However, the Government's 51 per cent to 49 per cent lead over the opposition is less than the survey's 3-percentage-point margin of error.
In Abbott's last news conference as Prime Minister, after he was ousted in a surprise leadership ballot in the ruling Liberal Party, he promised to make the transition to the new Administration "as easy as I can".
Abbott said: "There will be no wrecking, no undermining and no sniping."
But in his first media interview since then, Abbott contradicted new Treasurer Scott Morrison's version of events leading up to the leadership challenge.
Morrison has said he played no role in the challenge and that he warned Abbott's office days before the Turnbull challenge that resulted in his own promotion from Social Services Minister to the senior economics portfolio - regarded as the most prestigious after the Prime Minister.
Morrison also said he warned Abbott's office days ahead that "things were pretty febrile and they should be on high alert".
But Abbott told the Daily Telegraph there was no such warning.
"Not true, not true. Scott never warned anyone," Abbott told the newspaper in an interview published yesterday. "I'm afraid Scott badly misled people."
