Prime Minister Julia Gillard's popularity has crashed in Queensland, where her predecessor Kevin Rudd is preferred as Labor leader, a poll shows.
Labor's primary vote has crashed to 28 per cent from 33.6 per cent at last year's election, a Galaxy poll conducted exclusively for The Courier-Mail has found.
The ALP would lose even more marginal seats if the results were repeated across the nation.
Ominously for the government, just 19 per cent of Queenslanders surveyed backed Ms Gillard to lead Labor.
By comparison Mr Rudd, who lives in Brisbane, was three times as popular, garnering 59 per cent support.
In other bad news for Ms Gillard, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott overtook her in the preferred prime minister stakes, adding 16 percentage points to lead 53 per cent to 47 per cent.
Ms Gillard's 19 per cent rating as Labor leader is a dramatic fall from the 33 per cent she attracted in February.
"Such is the popularity of Kevin Rudd in Queensland that there is consensus between Labor and LNP supporters, with both of the opinion that he is now the best choice to lead the federal Labor Party," Galaxy chief executive David Briggs said.
The May 10 budget has not helped Treasurer Wayne Swan's popularity either, with his support as a potential Labor leader falling to 9 per cent from 15 per cent in February.
