The latest opinion polls have revealed that the popularity of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has suffered a strike, while Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s remains low.

The Newspoll published by the Australian has indicated the recent political controversies on Special State Minister Mal Brough and Liberal MP Ian Macfarlane have affected the level of popularity of Turnbull to a great extent. Recently, Brough’s interview with “60 Minutes” in 2014 hit the news after he admitted that he asked former staffer James Ashby to copy the diary of the then-speaker Peter Slipper in 2012.

Though the Special State minister apologised in the Parliament on Dec. 1, the controversy still was a major concern as Turnbull has been facing pressure on ousting the minister from the post he held. Following the matter came decision of defection from Macfarlane, which also affected the PM’s image, reflecting the rating in the Newspoll.

Last Newspoll results showed 64 per cent of the respondents preferred Turnbull as prime minister , while this time it was reduced to 60 per cent. Though the percentage is still the highest among other leaders in the past six years, the decline was noticeable. The vital part is that in spite of the fall in the level of popularity of the prime minister, opposition Labor Party couldn’t take its advantage of it as it continued to decline to 14 per cent, one point down from previous polls.

So far as satisfaction from PM’s performance was concerned, the percentage dropped from 60 to 52 percent in a fortnight. The rate of disapproval also witnessed a hike from 22 per cent to 30 per cent.

Around 1,616 people were surveyed between Thursday and Sunday to get an accurate representation of what the public wanted at the end of 2015 before the beginning of an election year. The poll showed the Coalition’s primary vote fell two-year high to 46 per scent, one point swing from the last survey.

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