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The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and the leader of the opposition, Bill Shorten, during question time on Tuesday.
The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and the leader of the opposition, Bill Shorten, during question time on Tuesday. Photograph: Stefan Postles/Getty Images
The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and the leader of the opposition, Bill Shorten, during question time on Tuesday. Photograph: Stefan Postles/Getty Images

Snap poll puts Malcolm Turnbull ahead of Bill Shorten among Labor voters

This article is more than 8 years old

SMS poll conducted on Tuesday afternoon found 70% of the 1200 ALP voters surveyed prefer the new prime minister

More Labor voters prefer Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister to their own party leader Bill Shorten, a snap Roy Morgan poll has found.

The newly appointed prime minister was given the expected polling bounce as all voters put him well ahead of Shorten.

The snap SMS poll conducted on Tuesday afternoon found that 70% of the 1200 surveyed thought Turnbull was the better prime minister, compared with just 24% who preferred Shorten. The remaining 6% were undecided, did not respond or preferred someone else.

But alarmingly for the opposition, one out of two survey respondents who listed themselves as Labor voters thought Turnbull was preferable to Shorten, a touch more than the 44% who preferred Shorten.

“Australian electors have given a massive mandate to new prime minister Malcolm Turnbull on his first day as prime minister,” the pollster, Gary Morgan, said.

Turnbull is rated as the better prime minister when compared with Shorten across all states and territories, and with both men and women.

More than three out of four survey respondents – 76% – in Western Australia preferred Turnbull, compared with 20% who opted for Shorten.

The survey result comes just days before Saturday’s byelection in the Western Australian seat of Canning.

Tuesday’s results are a dramatic move away from the last Roy Morgan poll taken in July, which had Shorten neck and neck with then prime minister, Tony Abbott.

The 22 July poll found Abbott one percentage point ahead of Shorten as preferred prime minister, 42% to 41%.

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