55 per cent of voters dissatisfied with Gillard (and Abbott)

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is losing ground according to the latest poll. Photo / AP

Labor's two-party preferred vote remained steady over the summer break, the latest Newspoll shows.

The poll, published in The Australian newspaper on Tuesday, has Labor on 46 per cent to the coalition's 54 per cent.

This is the same result as the poll taken just after the final parliamentary session, in early December 2011.

The two parties' primary vote has changed by just one point - which could be attributed to the margin of error - to leave Labor on 30 (down one point) and the coalition on 45 (up one point).

Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott both lost ground on their job satisfaction ratings.

More voters said they were uncommitted, moving away from both satisfied and dissatisfied.

The leaders' ratings were almost identical, with 55 per cent of voters dissatisfied with the performance of each.

Ms Gillard had 33 per cent satisfaction, down from 36 per cent in December, while the poll found 32 per cent were satisfied with Mr Abbott's performance.

The prime minister was still rated as preferred prime minister but she lost ground from the December poll.

However, more of that loss went to the uncommitted column than to Mr Abbott.

Senior Labor minister Simon Crean pointed out the Galaxy poll on Monday showed Labor lifting its primary vote by five percentage points.

"These two polls are poles apart," he told ABC Radio.

"I think that to try and read anything into it just shows how fickle the polling can be, and particularly when we're almost two years out from an election."

Finance Minister Penny Wong said it was the government's job to get on with governing.

"We don't govern looking to the polls," she told Sky News.

"We've put in place a lot of reform ... last year and now this year we've got to do a range of things including bring the budget back to surplus and that's what we're focused on."

Mr Crean said the government had taken a hit for implementing those hard reforms.

"Our task obviously now is to sell it better," he said.

- AAP