Abbott must learn to be seen, not heard

100423 graphic pollies

TONY Abbott goes AWOL on a nine-day charity Pollie Pedal through regional NSW and his net satisfaction rating improves. Kevin Rudd spends three weeks blitzing marginal seats across NSW and Queensland selling his health and hospitals reform package and his declines. Go figure.

I suspect most voters are genuinely surprised when Abbott now does a press conference in a suit instead of lycra.

Nevertheless, the polls don't lie - out on the bike for much of the time since the last Newspoll, Abbott has staved off the decline in his support registered at the end of last month (his net satisfaction rating has jumped from +1 to +6).

However, he still trails Rudd who is on +9 (down from +12), but the margin is negligible.

The Labor Party is promoting the narrative that Abbott is starting to look like Mark Latham did when his personal satisfaction ratings started to slide (I have received more than a few calls from Labor figures running that line). Newspoll doesn't support the theory, however. And even the less generous Nelson poll results from Monday had Abbott's net satisfaction rating remaining just in positive territory.

The lesson for Abbott from his good personal showing in the latest Newspoll shouldn't be to do more work on the bike - it should be that he doesn't need to dominate the media agenda to do well with voters. Opposition leaders inevitably oppose much of what the government says and does, as their job title suggests they should. But being out in the public eye on a daily basis criticising everything a popular Prime Minister is saying doesn't always endear the alternative PM to voters.

For voters, it would seem that Abbott's absence in recent weeks has made hearts grow fonder.

Conversely, Rudd doesn't need to worry that his Newspoll net satisfaction rating has dipped slightly. Labor is targeting its messages towards key constituencies and in doing so, Rudd's national appeal is sure to suffer ever so slightly. It matters not - Rudd is winning over voters with his marginal seats tour of hospitals in the electorates that matter to his re-election, and that is what this election year will increasingly be all about.