(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Australia’s governing party has maintained a fairly stable rate of political support this month as the opposition has lost ground, according to a poll by Newspoll published in The Australian. 42 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 September.

The Coalition of Liberals and Nationals is second with 34 per cent, down three points in less than a month. The Australian Greens are third with 10 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 Sept. 16, Turnbull won a new internal leadership race, edging Nelson by four votes.

On Sept. 25, Rudd urged the American government to introduce tight regulations and guidelines of transparency in the financial system, saying, "It would be good if all economies, large and small, across the world did the same. (...) Transparency is a core part of long-term global stabilization of global financial markets."

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 1,148 Australian voters, conducted from Sept. 19 to Sept. 21, 2008. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

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