Aust'n government trail opposition again in latest public opinion poll

Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull remains as the nation's preferred leader, but the opposition Labor Party retained its lead over the Coalition in the two-party preferred vote, the latest opinion poll revealed on Monday.

Newspoll, taken for News Corp publications, found that Labor continues to lead the coalition by 52 percent to 48 percent in the two-party preferred vote, 100 days after the coalition's slim election victory in July.

Turnbull remains preferred PM over Opposition Leader Bill Shorten; his rating rose a point to 45 percent, the highest since the election, while Shorten's fell to a four-month low of 30 percent after weeks of slow gains.

But despite Turnbull increasing the gap as preferred Prime Minister, his overall net satisfaction rating fell two points to a new low of -25 compared to Shorten's net satisfaction rating of -16.

Shorten said the latest Newspoll reflected the view of many Australians that the Turnbull experiment had failed.

"The longer the Turnbull experiment goes, the worse it gets. It's becoming increasingly clear this Prime Minister simply isn't up to the job," Shorten told News Corp on Monday.

"Australians are beyond disappointed; they despair at how weak and directionless this Prime Minister is."

Overall the survey showed minimal improvement for the government compared to the previous Newspoll, which was Turnbull's worst result since he ousted Tony Abbott as Prime Minister last September. Endit