Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce has dismissed a poll that puts Labor and the coalition neck and neck, saying people will soon discover the reincarnated Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is the same as the first version.
Senator Joyce says people give new leaders a grace period.
"Implicitly people have a sense of good faith, they go, `Oh well that's good', and then they start peeling back the onion and looking inside it," he told Sky News on Sunday.
"They find Mr Rudd more plausible than Ms Gillard ... but they don't see Mr Rudd as a person who's singularly going to lead the country to a better place."
A Galaxy poll published in News Corp Australia newspapers on Sunday puts Labor's primary vote at 40 per cent, surpassing Julia Gillard's 2010 election vote for the first time.
The coalition's primary vote remains on 44 per cent.
This gives a two-party preferred result of 50-50.
The poll also found people rated Mr Rudd better than Opposition Leader Tony Abbott at handling asylum seekers, climate change and having the best vision for the future.
The poll was taken between July 23 and 25, within a week of Mr Rudd announcing Labor's hardline Papua New Guinea resettlement policy for asylum seekers.
Mr Abbott announced the coalition's plan for a military-led multi-agency taskforce to handle border protection while the poll was being conducted.
Senator Joyce said making policy on the run was "almost pathological" for Labor.
AAP klc/ldj
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