Australian PM loses 29th consecutive opinion poll

CANBERRA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has lost his 29th consecutive Newspoll as the opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP) continues to rise.

The latest Newspoll, released on Sunday night, revealed that the ALP maintained its lead over Turnbull's governing Liberal National Party (LNP) on a two-party preferred basis 53-47.

The poll of 1,597 voters also found that the ALP's primary vote had risen to 39 percent, up one point from the previous poll, while the LNP stagnated at 37 percent.

Worryingly for the LNP, Labor's rise came despite a majority of respondents saying they were opposed to ALP leader Bill Shorten's proposed tax reforms.

The result means that if an election were held today, the LNP would lose with Shorten becoming prime minister.

Scott Morrison, Australia's treasurer and one of Turnbull's top deputies, said the next federal election was more than a year away.

"Here are the numbers that I think Australians sweat on more than the Newspoll: the deficit has been halved, unemployment has fallen from 6.2 to 5.6 percent during the period you're referring to, 673,000 Australians have got a job, consumer confidence is up more than 10 percent," Morrison told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio on Monday.

"These are the things that change people's daily lives. Newspoll doesn't."

Despite Shorten's tax plan, which would see the country save 59 billion Australian dollars (45.5 billion U.S. dollars) over 10 years, falling flat, his satisfaction rating among voters lifted one point to 34 percent, two points ahead of Turnbull. Enditem