Voters warming to Morrison, treasurer says

Two polls show the coalition still has a way to go to win the favour of voters, after Malcolm Turnbull was deposed in August.

The coalition continues to struggle in the polls against Labor.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says voters are warming to Scott Morrison. (AAP)

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has declared Australian voters "like what they see" after Prime Minister Scott Morrison's first eight weeks in office.

But two polls released on Monday show the coalition is still behind Labor when it comes to the two-party preferred vote ahead of a federal election due next year.

The Newspoll published in The Australian show Labor is ahead 53 per cent to 47 per cent for the coalition, although this was a slight one percentage point improvement for the government from the last poll in September.

The Fairfax-Ipsos poll published by Fairfax Media shows put the coalition on 45 per cent and behind Labor on 55 per cent.

Mr Morrison is the preferred prime minister with a 45 per cent to 35 per cent lead over Labor leader Bill Shorten, Newspoll found. Mr Shorten's ranking represented an increase of two percentage points from the last poll.

"People like what they see with Scott Morrison," Mr Frydenberg told ABC radio on Monday.

"He's leading as the preferred prime minister in all the major polls and he's just getting started."

Education Minister Dan Tehan said voters in his regional Victorian seat of Wannon were warming to the prime minister's "succinct and concise" approach.

"People like the plain-speaking, they like the concise approach, they like the decisive approach, they know where he stands on issues," Mr Tehan told Sky News.

However, Labor frontbencher Jim Chalmers said the polls were "incredibly encouraging" for the opposition.

"We're not obsessed by polls like our opponents are, we are focused firmly on the Australian people and the policies they need to get ahead in their own lives," Mr Chalmers told reporters in Canberra.

"Bill Shorten has been the leader for every single day of those two years where we have been in an election winning position in every single published opinion poll."

Meanwhile, the Ipsos poll also found voters are overwhelmingly opposed to giving religious schools the right to discriminate against gay teachers and students.

Seventy-four per cent of those surveyed were against laws giving these schools the power to select students and teachers based on their sexual orientation, relationship status or gender identity.

Only 21 per cent of voters support such the laws.

Among coalition voters, 30 per cent were in favour while 62 per cent opposed.

The Newspoll surveyed 1707 voters and has a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points. The Ipsos poll of 1200 voters has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.


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Source: AAP


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