Senior Liberal MPs have rallied behind federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull who declares he can win the next election despite a collapse in his personal popularity.
Mr Turnbull put on a brave face on Tuesday in the wake of a three point fall in his approval rating to 16 per cent - the same low as his predecessor Brendan Nelson recorded before he was dumped last September.
Frontbenchers Tony Abbott, Christopher Pyne and Peter Dutton all backed Mr Turnbull to take the coalition to the next federal election, due late next year.
The latest Newspoll, published in The Australian newspaper on Tuesday, shows Mr Turnbull's personal approval rating is now 50 points behind that of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, whose rating rose two points to 66 per cent.
Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne urged his colleagues to hold their nerve, saying there was "a snowflake's chance in hell" Mr Turnbull would be dumped as opposition leader before the next election.
He compared the situation to that of 140 British soldiers who held their own against thousands of Zulus at Rorke's Drift in South Africa in a battle during the Anglo-Zulu war in 1879.
"I would simply say to my colleagues - hold your nerve. Be like the English at Rorke's Drift and we will win against the charging Zulus," he said.
After a speech in Sydney to an Australian Institute of Company Directors lunch, Mr Turnbull put an optimistic spin on the results.
"I'm very confident that we will fight the next election and win it," Mr Turnbull said.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd chose not to gloat as he consulted medical professionals in Sydney on Labor's proposed health changes, saying polls go up and down.
"The important thing is to just keep your eyes focused on the main game," Mr Rudd said.
Mr Abbott, launching his new book Battlelines, said he thought Mr Turnbull was doing a good job, as did health spokesman Peter Dutton.
"Polls come and go, but Malcolm is our leader for keeps," Mr Abbott said.
Mr Dutton said his leader was managing to get his message across to the public in spite of the Rudd spin machine.
But not everyone was in agreement as recalcitrant former Howard government minister and Liberal backbencher Wilson Tuckey again emailed his party room colleagues criticising Mr Turnbull for his stance on emissions trading.
He pointed to the Newspoll which also found 45 per cent of Australians favoured delaying the introduction of an emissions trading scheme until after a UN climate change summit in Copenhagen in December.
This compared to 41 per cent who want a scheme introduced now.
In another email earlier this month, Mr Tuckey accused his leader of inexperience and arrogance in relation to the issue.
Last week, Mr Turnbull released proposed amendments to the government's carbon pollution reduction scheme, which is certain to be defeated in the Senate when parliament resumes the week after next.
However, many in the opposition want the bill defeated and are not interested in amending Labor's proposed scheme even if it is delayed until early next year.
The stand-off places Mr Turnbull in a difficult position as it has the potential to deliver the government a double dissolution election trigger.
Newspoll chief executive Martin O'Shannessy said he could not see how Mr Turnbull could recover from his latest popularity slump, particularly given his numbers have remained low for three consecutive polls.
"John Howard got pretty close to these sort of numbers in his first round as opposition leader but we've never seen a situation where an opposition leader has been able to come back from so low," Mr O'Shannessy said.
The Newspoll showed a small movement in the party votes with Labor retaining its two-party preferred lead with a two-point improvement to 57 per cent compared to a two-point fall for the coalition to 43 per cent.
Front page
RSS Feed