In just a year, Julia Gillard has distinguished herself in the unpopularity stakes

pvo net satisfaction leaders

JULIA Gillard's personal numbers have improved, but describing it as a rise in her popularity doesn't really capture the true dynamics at play. More accurately, her unpopularity has diminished slightly.

Instead of 68 per cent of voters being dissatisfied with the job she is doing, that figure is now only 61 per cent. Instead of a record low net satisfaction rating of minus 45, she is now at minus 34.

It's almost double Kevin Rudd's lowest of lows, but unlike Rudd in June last year Gillard still has two years before she has to face the people, her supporters say.

If Gillard keeps this week's Newspoll improvement going, in coming months she could get to a point where as many people like her as dislike her. John Howard found himself in this situation at the end of nearly 12 years in power.

But Gillard has been in office for only a little over a year, a telling difference for someone so on the nose.

More telling than low personal numbers is the new low in Labor's primary vote. At 26 per cent, federal Labor is officially in NSW Labor territory when it comes to plumbing depths. Some Labor MPs are worried the party brand has been irreversibly damaged by the Prime Minister's brand, and the polling supports that hypothesis.

Not that the Coalition would be happy if it confined itself to reading the leaders' ratings. Tony Abbott continues to lead Gillard on the preferred prime minister calculations, but that is comparative glory only. Were he up against anyone else (barring Craig Thomson, I suspect) Abbott would not be sitting so pretty. We know this because of his poor net satisfaction rating, down from minus 13 two weeks ago to minus 20 now.

But party strategists certainly do not confine themselves to reading leaders' ratings. They are more interested in what the primary vote tells them (48 per cent for the Coalition, just 26 for Labor).

Which is why Gillard's improved numbers and Abbott's slide should be very cold comfort for Labor.