Australia's opposition leader's popularity hits record low of 14 percent

Support for Australia's opposition leader Bill Shorten to be the next prime minister has slumped to a record low for a Labor leader, falling one point to 14 percent in the latest Newspoll published Tuesday.

The embattled Labor Party leader recorded a third successive drop as preferred prime minister, equalling Simon Crean's low approval rating in November 2003.

Shorten's satisfaction rating - how the electorate has viewed his performance - also dropped to 23 percent in the poll, published in The Australian newspaper, which is the lowest for any opposition leader, again since Crean in 2003.

In the previous Newspoll, conducted a fortnight ago, Shorten's satisfaction rating was 26 percent.

Responding to the disastrous poll results, Shorten told News Corp on Tuesday that he "won't quit because I don't quit."

While Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has recently returned from a five-nation tour where he met 20 world leaders, his standing as preferred prime minister also fell.

Turnbull's rating dropped four points to 60 percent, though his coalition government still holds a 6 percent margin in the two-party preferred vote, 53 percent to Labor's 47 percent. Enditem