Australian election :

Labour Party takes narrow lead

AUSTRALIA: Australian Labour has maintained a four-point lead over the coalition on a two-party preferred basis as the federal election campaign enters its final days, the latest Newspoll showed Monday.

The poll, published in The Australian newspaper on Monday, found Labour has held a 52 to 48 percent lead over the coalition since last week’s poll.

The poll also showed support for Labour has risen markedly since late July, just before Prime Minister Julia Gillard took the Labour leadership from Kevin Rudd.

At that time Rudd was ousted, Labour was behind the coalition, with 35 percent support to the coalition’s 47.

There was also little difference in primary votes from last week, according to the poll, with Labor steady on 38 percent, the coalition down one point to 41 percent and The Greens up one point to 14 percent.

The approval ratings for Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott have also improved slightly.

The number of voters satisfied with Gillard’s performance has risen one point to 44 percent and her disapproval is down three points to 38 percent.

Forty-three percent of those polled were satisfied with Abbott’ s performance (up two points) and 46 percent were dissatisfied ( down three points).

The standing of both leaders also increased in the preferred prime minister stakes, with Gillard leading on 50 percent (up one point) to Abbott’s 35 percent (up one point).

The poll of 1694 people was taken between Friday and Sunday by telephone.

Australia’s election date was set on August 21.

Canberra, Monday, Xinhua