(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Australia’s governing party remains ahead of the opposition, according to a poll by Newspoll published in The Australian. 43 per cent of respondents would vote for the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in the next federal election.

The Coalition of Liberals and Nationals is second with 38 per cent, followed by the Australian Greens with 11 per cent. Australia’s preferential voting system—where electors indicate an order of predilection for each contender, and the ballots from smaller parties are re-distributed—gives the ALP a 10-point lead over the Coalition.

Australia held a federal election in November 2007. Final results gave the ALP 85 seats in the 150-member House of Representatives. ALP leader Kevin Rudd was officially sworn in as prime minister in December, bringing an end to the 11-year tenure of Liberal leader John Howard as head of Australia’s government.

Howard failed to retain his seat in the Bennelong constituency and stepped down as Liberal leader. Brendan Nelson—a former defence minister—defeated former environment minister Malcolm Turnbull in an internal leadership ballot by just three votes.

On Jul. 14, shadow justice minister Christopher Pyne discussed the current government’s Green Paper—which outlines an emissions trading scheme that could begin operations in 2010—saying, "The rate of how this should be introduced is the only issue open to debate. But of course we prefer and will argue for China, India and Brazil and other countries to be part of any program going forward, otherwise what we do is a tiny drop in the ocean."

Polling Data

If a federal election to the House of Representatives were held today, which one of the following would you vote for? If "Uncommitted", to which one of these do you have a leaning?

Two-Party Preferred Vote

Source: Newspoll / The Australian
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,137 Australian voters, conducted from Jul. 11 to Jul. 13, 2008. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

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