Mal ‘better leader’ than Tony

Australians believe Malcolm Turnbull has better values and credentials to lead than Tony Abbott, Newspoll finds.

A special Newspoll ­reveals that 58 per cent of voters say Malcolm Turnbull has the best values and leadership credentials while only 23 per cent favour Tony Abbott. Picture: Kym Smith

Australians believe Malcolm Turnbull has better values and credentials to lead the country than Tony Abbott, in a new finding that counters the former prime minister’s campaign for a drastic shift in the government’s direction.

Coalition supporters have cooled on the idea of giving Mr Abbott a position in federal cabinet while almost half of them want him to stop commenting on the government’s performance after months of dispute over policies and personalities.

A special Newspoll, conducted exclusively for The Australian, ­reveals that 58 per cent of voters say the Prime Minister has the best values and leadership credentials while only 23 per cent favour Mr Abbott.

The result comes as Mr Abbott heads to central Queensland this week to campaign on energy ­prices after issuing a five-point plan seeking big changes in ­government policy such as the abolition of the Renewable Energy Target.

With the government battling to reverse a slump in the polls, conservative critics and disaffected Liberals have stepped up their ­attacks on Mr Turnbull in recent months while urging him to ­embrace Mr Abbott’s ideas and ­return the former leader to federal cabinet.

But the special Newspoll shows the government’s own “base” prefers the Prime Minister to his predecessor, with 69 per cent of Coalition voters backing his values and leadership credentials while 23 per cent favour Mr Abbott.

The relative support for the Prime Minister is similar among Labor voters and stronger among Greens supporters, with One ­Nation voters the only group that prefers Mr Abbott’s leadership qualities.

Among One Nation voters, 44 per cent support Mr Abbott’s values and leadership credentials compared with 34 per cent who prefer Mr Turnbull.

Mr Abbott said yesterday he was heading to Gladstone to talk about energy prices with Liberal National Party MP Ken O’Dowd and the local community, declaring “we have to keep the lights on” by keeping coal-fired electricity.

“We’ve been on the wrong ­direction for far too long,” Mr ­Abbott told radio station 2GB.

“For the best part of a decade decisions in this area have not been made to give us a cheaper and more reliable power; they’ve been made to reduce emissions.

“What I think we need is a jobs-first power policy, not a power policy which obsesses about reducing emissions.”

Government backbenchers are divided over a proposal for a clean energy target that offers incentives for renewable and low-emission projects, sparking calls for the scheme to be widened to include coal or accompanied by direct public investment in new coal power plants.

The Liberal Party’s divisions over energy, school funding, superannuation tax increases and other policies have dogged the government as it tries to regain ground in the polls, with the latest Newspoll cementing Labor’s lead.

This was the 16th consecutive Newspoll in which the Coalition trailed Labor, a tally that Mr ­Turnbull set as a test of leadership when he cited the loss of “30 Newspolls in a row” as a reason for challenging Mr Abbott in September 2015.

Asked about the Newspoll ­result yesterday, Mr Abbott warned of the prospect of the “worst Labor government” in history and said the Opposition Leader was a “stooge” of the unions.

Labor trade spokesman Jason Clare said Mr Abbott was appearing on radio every week to “destabilise” Mr Turnbull’s leadership.

The support for Mr Turnbull on values and leadership comes as he widened his lead against Mr Shorten as preferred prime minister.

While Mr Shorten steadily gained on Mr Abbott on this key measure and eventually overtook him at the end of 2014, months ­before the first parliamentary ­Liberal Party vote to topple the leader, the Opposition Leader has so far failed to do the same against Mr ­Turnbull.

Voters have scaled back their support for Mr Abbott to be returned to a leadership role compared with a Newspoll survey in February last year, when 45 per cent said the former prime minister should not contest the following election.

Mr Abbott not only fought the July 2016 election but declared in April this year he had “quite some time left” in the parliament.

The latest survey finds that 23 per cent of voters agreed that Mr Abbott should be offered a senior position in cabinet, down from 26 per cent who said the same in the poll in February last year.

Coalition voters have also scaled back their support for Mr Abbott taking a cabinet post, with only 31 per cent supporting the idea in the latest poll compared with 41 per cent who said the same last year.

Liberals say it is probably too late for Mr Turnbull to offer Mr Abbott a ministry to bring him back into the fold and there is no indication from the Prime Minister that he would like to do so.

The alternative scenario is that Mr Abbott stays on the backbench and continues to speak out on government policy, an idea that only has 17 per cent support from voters in general. Last year’s poll did not ask an equivalent question.

Almost half of all voters want Mr Abbott to stay on the backbench but make an undertaking to stop commenting on the government’s performance, an idea endorsed by 48 per cent of respondents.

This option is also endorsed by 48 per cent of ­Coalition voters, 56 per cent of Labor voters and 65 per cent of Greens voters.

One Nation voters differ on this point, with only 35 per cent saying that Mr Abbott should stop commenting on the government’s performance and stay on the ­backbench.