(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Australia’s governing party has a solid lead over the official opposition, according to a poll by Newspoll published in The Australian. 45 per cent of respondents would vote for the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in the next election to the House of Representatives, down two points since early August.

The Coalition of Liberals and Nationals is second with 38 per cent, followed by the Australian Greens with eight 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 12-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 Aug. 28, Rudd announced another measure in his plan to "revolutionize" Australia’s education system, saying that billions of dollars to be allocated to schools will not be granted to failing or underperforming institutions. The plan—which is yet to be approved by the Council of Australian Governments—would require every state in the country to report on the performance of each school. The prime minister explained his rationale saying, "We should not tolerate underperformance; it damages students irreparably. (...) The government is committed to investing substantially in our schools to deliver better outcomes but we’re not making investments without demanding accountability in return."

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 1,136 Australian voters, conducted from Aug. 22 to Aug. 24, 2008. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

Archive Search

Over 19,600 Polls
Search the Angus Reid Global Monitor Polls & Research archive.