Australian Greens leader Bob Brown says there has been a big swing among voters in favour of the prime minister over the summer break.
Senator Brown also said Julia Gillard, whose leadership is under the spotlight, needed a break from sexist and unfair criticism.
"There's a big swing around from the average punter in favour of Julia Gillard," Senator Brown told reporters in Canberra on Monday.
"She is getting a rough time ... and quite a bit of the criticism is sexist and unfair and unrelenting, and the prime minister needs a bit of a break from that.
"It's time she got that break and the people of Australia are indicating she should have it."
Senator Brown was commenting on Ms Gillard's leadership after a Nielsen poll found she was two points ahead of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott as preferred prime minister, at 48 per cent to 46 per cent.
Labor's primary vote rose four points to 33 per cent while the coalition lost four points, falling 45 per cent, the poll published by Fairfax Media shows.
After preferences the coalition still leads Labor, at 53 per cent to 47 per cent, which would give it a landslide win at an election.
Senator Brown said Mr Abbott was in a "worse" situation in the leadership stakes than Ms Gillard.
"It may well be that it's the coalition leadership that's going to see change before we get to the next election, not the government's leadership."
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