PM will be a lame duck unless she finds vision

JULIA Gillard has ceased to be an asset to the federal Labor government, according to Newspoll's latest net satisfaction ratings.

The number of voters satisfied with her performance minus those who are dissatisfied.

The Prime Minister's net satisfaction rating is now zero. While she hasn't morphed into a liability yet, it is her worst result since taking over the leadership from Kevin Rudd. That means that far from honouring her campaign slogan of "moving forward", Gillard is tracking backwards. And the downward trend is showing up in Labor's two-party vote, where it trails the Coalition 48 to 52 per cent for the second fortnight in a row.

In contrast, Tony Abbott's net satisfaction rating has lifted into positive territory at +2, which is really good news for the Opposition Leader after his ratings dipped to -10 shortly after the election. Abbott looked like moving into the fatal zone and staying there: instead, he is building towards being a prime minister in waiting.

Or it could just be that Abbott got less media attention this week as Joe Hockey took centre stage to sell his banking reforms.

No doubt Gillard set herself modest goals after she formed minority government, namely getting Labor to year end without the delicate parliamentary agreements falling apart.

But she is in danger of becoming a lame duck leader unless she finds a vision for the future, and quickly. Gillard's poor ratings reflect the despair of a voting public, which wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt in the election's aftermath. Where Abbott's ratings slipped to -10, Gillard's rose to +16 immediately after the election. It has been downhill since.

Labor insiders argue Gillard is having trouble setting a direction because she didn't expect to take over the leadership so soon.

But if Gillard ran for parliament in 1998, the party's deputy leadership in 2006 and accepted the commission of deputy prime minister in 2007, all without a clear idea as to what she would do with Australia if she ever got the chance to lead, then Gillard is either a poor planner or lacking in ideas. Either way isn't prime ministerial. Gillard had better lift her game before that assessment becomes more widely held than it already is.