Oppn favoured by Australian voters to win next election: Poll

Canberra, Dec 6 A new poll has revealed that Australia's main opposition Labor Party is the favourite among voters to win the next federal election.

The latest Newspoll, which was published on Sunday night, found that 47 per cent of voters expect Labor to form a government following the election, which is due to be held by May 2022, compared to 37 per cent who expect the governing Coalition to remain in power, reports Xinhua news agency.

However, the margin is closer than that in the lead-up to the 2019 election, when 55 per cent of voters tipped a Labor victory only for the Coalition to pull off a major upset and win a third term in the government.

According to the poll Labor still leads the Coalition 53-47 on a two-party preferred basis.

The poll indicated that preference deals with independents, who could have a major impact on the election result with 13 per cent of respondents saying they intend to cast their first preference votes for minor parties.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison continues to lead Labor leader Anthony Albanese as the voters' preferred Prime Minister, with 45 per cent choosing the incumbent compared to 36 per cent for Albanese.

The most significant change since the last poll in mid-November was in the leaders' satisfaction rating.

For the first time since March 2020, Albanese leads Morrison in net satisfaction, which is measured by subtracting the portion of voters dissatisfied with their performance from those who are satisfied.

Albanese recorded a negative six rating while Morrison's was negative eight compared to a positive-36 rating at the same time in 2020.