As political honeymoons go Tony Ab-bott's has proved elusive, even invisible. Mr Abbott (pictured above) became Australia's prime minister almost four months ago, when he led the conservative Liberal-National coalition to a comfortable victory over an unpopular Labor government. By the end of the year, however, the unpopularity had shifted to the new government. No prime minister in memory has fallen so quickly from voters' grace. Surveys conducted in November and December by Australia's two main pollsters, Nielsen and Newspoll, both showed Labor ahead of the coalition by 52 points to 48. The coalition won 53.5% of the vote at the election last September against Labor's 46.5%, after distribution of second preference votes. John Stirton, of Nielsen, says that in 40 years of polling, his firm has never seen a swing of such magnitude against a new administration. Governments have usually basked in polling honeymoons of up to two years. This time, the post-election swing is against it.
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