Premier Mike Baird is gearing up for a "very tough" NSW election as a new poll suggests the gap between the coalition and Labor is closing.
A Galaxy Poll released on Monday shows the coalition's lead has narrowed to 53-47 per cent on a two-party preferred basis just five weeks out from the state election.
"I have said all along that this is going to be a very tough election," Mr Baird said.
He suggested the poll result could be partly due to a negative advertisement campaign by the unions and Labor against his government.
"Labor have run, and the unions run, great ads," he said.
"(They're) not truthful and there's no substance to any of them, but they're smart and clever because they're trying to scare the people of NSW."
The poll result is the worst for the state government since last May, just after Barry O'Farrell resigned as premier after giving misleading evidence to ICAC about a $3000 bottle of Grange.
The poll represents an 11 per cent swing from Mr O'Farrell's 2011 election result and could lead to Labor picking up about 16 seats.
Shadow treasurer Michael Daley put the result down to opposition to the government's plan to lease 49 per cent of the state's electricity network.
"People don't like the Liberal's business model selling profitable public assets, cutting services and sacking thousands of government workers," he told Macquarie Radio.
"It's the Tony Abbott, Campbell Newman, Mike Baird way of doing things and people don't like it."
Mr Baird is taking his electricity privatisation to the March 28 election.
Opposition Leader Luke Foley said: "I'm not a commentator on polls. I won't commentate on the polls, but as I go around I sense an increasing focus on the key issues of this election".
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