Oz new PM set to win election: Polls

The Nielsen poll gave Labor a 55-45 lead over the conservative opposition on a ‘two-party’ basis,which excludes minor parties under Australia’s system of transferable voting. That represents an eight-point swing to the government.

Gillard was also preferred prime minister over opposition leader Tony Abbott,with a 55 to 34 point advantage,a lead more than twice that recently held by Rudd.

Labor’s primary vote rose 14 points to 47 percent,while support for the Greens,who benefited from widespread disenchantment with both major political groups,sank from 15 percent to eight.

A separate Galaxy poll gave similar results,showing Labor with a 52 to 48 percent advantage on a ‘two-party’ basis and Gillard preferred over Abbott as prime minister by 58 percent to 32 percent. The coalition’s primary vote,however,remained marginally ahead at 42 percent to the government’s 41 percent.

The polls were published in leading newspapers on Saturday.

Gillard’s rise to prime minister on Thursday,replacing the man she served as deputy prime minister,made her Australia’s first female prime minister,and came just months before an election.

Rudd’s once-record poll ratings sagged in recent months after he failed to get an emissions trading scheme passed by the upper house Senate and then announced a planned new tax on mining profits,which polls had suggested could cost Labor many seats at the election.

Since she took over,Gillard has said all aspects of the new tax are now negotiable,prompting the mining industry to halt its campaign to stop it.