Dear Suze,

Don't bet on it.

Polls change overnight - and they're not much
of an indicator anyway - depends who they survey
at what time, et cetera. In politics things
change in a flash. I watched "Insight" last night
where young voters were interviewed as to who
they'd vote for as PM. Mr Abbott did not fair well.
And neither did our current PM.

Interesting.

Abbott's a liability and only slightly up in the poles because Labor's so on the nose. I reckong the party would love to dump him but they've got no one else but Turnbull, who is a charismatic so the party doesn't want him either
In a perfect world of course we wouldn't want the leader to be too charismatic and influential, and the party would stick to its party line and underlying ideology. What we have and all we have from all sides instead is perpetual electioneering and PR-driven populist policies.
I feel sorry for Gillard and sympathise with her powerless position, and I'm disappointed our first female PM was thrust into power under such difficult circumstances--with the benefit of hindsight she might have declined. But I do think she's in the obsequiously conventional, quasi-conservative Labor faction, rather than the reformist wing.

Sqeers much but not all of what you say is true, Lexi, my Friend, no joy in saying this.
We must take the polls seriously.
Now Abbott, truly look, is standing on Gillards shoulders.
She once stood on his.
Never again.
People vote for many reasons, those of us who are fixed to a team, will have no effect on the next election.
Anti talks about his background in construction.
Mine was Civil,and there the fact Gillard is said to have lied is seeing few who would consider, no matter the out come voting for her.
A hung Parliament, that is the reason both leaders still lead.
Behind the scenes powers work we are not being told about.
Self interest not Australia's interest are propping two unlikely leaders up.

Lexi and Squeers,

You are both kidding yourselves. If you dissect the polls, the dissatisfaction with Abbott is coming from the labor voters. With coalition voters his approval is very strong.

With regards the voters, his approval ratings are double that of Turnbull when he was the opposition leader, and he is more popular than Juliar.

Face it, when the next elections come, Abbott will be the next PM. The polls for Labor have slowly eroded over the past 18 months, and are unlikely to suddenly change enough overnight to save labor unless Abbott is caught with child porn, or Juliar pulls off a major Coup. As belly mentions, the polls especially Newspoll has been right on the money as far as voters' intentions are.

Shadow Minister,
there's many a slip between the cup and the lip. Rudd might still give Abbott a run yet.
More importantly, whatever the polls say, Abbott does not represent thinking people anywhere in the political spectrum. There are a great many conservatives like Malcolm Fraser who are disgusted with Abbott's and the governments currying favour with the xenophobic/denialist populist centre.
It's a matter of complete indifference to me which side wins as they're more or less the same. It's like deciding between McDonalds and Hungry Jacks. I'll be going for a healthier option : )

Dear Squeers,

I couldn't agree with you more.

There are many thinking conservatives -
who wouldn't touch Abbott with a barge pole.
And, find him simply to be a street brawler,
one they couldn't imagine representing
Australia as Prime Minister. Young voters
especially are extremely critical.