Malcolm Turnbull reckons a "beautiful" parliamentary church service was an opportunity for Australia's political parties to come together.
But he could have easily been talking about the not-so-beautiful numbers in the first major opinion poll since the July 2 election.
Mr Turnbull's coalition government and the Labor opposition are deadlocked on 50 per cent, Newspoll finds.
Satisfaction with the prime minister's performance has fallen to 34 per cent, his lowest level since he toppled Tony Abbott almost a year ago and down six points since the last measure on the eve of the July 2 election.
For the first time Mr Turnbull's net satisfaction rating -- now at minus 18 points -- is worse than the same measure for Bill Shorten, who scored minus 14 points.
The prime minister deflected questions from reporters as he left St Andrew's Church in Canberra on Tuesday morning, ahead of the new parliament being proclaimed at 10.30am.
"This is a beautiful service at a time when all parties come together and a time when we're reminded of our solemn duty to the Australian people and the many things we have in common, not least which is a shared commitment to advance Australia," Mr Turnbull said.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce played down the poll result.
"You will drive yourself crazy if you start worrying about polls at the start of the political term," he told the Nine Network.
Instead the government was busy getting stuck into it and making the hard decisions to take the nation forward, he said.
Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek said people were questioning what they got when they re-elected the Turnbull government.
"The government is at war with itself," she told ABC Radio.
