SMH wrote:Beazley for PM? Not yet, but it's narrowing
By Mark Metherell, Political Correspondent
February 15, 2005
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Bea ... click=true
Kim Beazley has scored a dramatic rise in public support for Labor and cut the Government's lead since his return to the party's leadership last month.
The latest Herald Poll shows that the gap between the Government and Labor has narrowed by 10 percentage points since Mr Beazley returned as Opposition Leader less than three weeks ago.
His return has also slashed the record approval rating the Prime Minister, John Howard, secured last month after the debacle surrounding the former ALP leader, Mark Latham.
Labor's two-party-preferred standing with voters stands at 48 per cent, a point above last October's election result and a rise of five percentage points on last month's poll, taken just before Mr Beazley was reinstalled. The Coalition's two-party-preferred vote stood at 52 per cent.
The Herald Poll conducted by ACNielsen at the weekend showed the Coalition's first-preference vote had slipped five points to 47 per cent, while Labor's primary vote rose by two to 36 per cent.
It also shows Mr Howard has put himself at odds with the overwhelming majority of voters over his refusal so far to apologise on behalf of the Government for the treatment of the mentally ill Australian resident Cornelia Rau, who was mistakenly held in immigration detention for 10 months.
Seventy per cent of people surveyed said they thought the Government should apologise to Ms Rau and her family - a step Mr Howard has ruled out until the Government has the findings of an inquiry into the affair. Only 24 per cent thought it should not.
Asked by Mr Beazley yesterday, Mr Howard did not say whether he agreed with the Treasurer, Peter Costello, who said on Sunday: "I think the Government is sorry that it happened."
The detention issue is expected to be raised again in the Coalition party room today.
The poll of 1407 respondents shows Mr Howard's personal approval has slipped from last month's historic high of 67 per cent to a still impressive 62 per cent.
This compares with Mr Beazley's rating of 50 per cent, just under the 51 per cent he drew before his November 2001 election defeat and subsequent resignation.
On the question of who was preferred prime minister, 56 per cent backed Mr Howard, and 35 per cent preferred Mr Beazley unchanged since November 2001.
Does Beazley stand a better chance than Latham next time round? I personally would have preferred Ms Gillard as leader of the ALP but at the end of the day, I am not really fazed as long as the ALP finally wins government in Australia.
Whilst it is good to hear the ALP is increasing in favour according to the latest polls, there is still a lot of lost ground to make up for. Oh well I suppose they've got untill 2007 to correct that situation anyway.
