Shorten's approval ratings slump to all-time low in polls

Australian Labor Party leader Bill Shorten. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Bill Shorten's approval ratings have plunged to an all-time low according to two new opinion polls, which have piled pressure on Australia's Opposition leader as he prepares to face a Royal Commission into trade union corruption tomorrow.

But there is little cheer for Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who has also sunk in voters' estimation. His Coalition continues to trail Labor by six and four points in the latest Ipsos poll and Newspoll, both published yesterday.

In fact, according to Fairfax Media, the two leaders' unpopularity is unprecedented in recent Australian political history - even dwarfing a period in mid-2012 when then Prime Minister Julia Gillard and then Opposition leader Abbott were both loathed by the electorate.

The pressure on Shorten, who will be questioned by the Royal Commission about allegedly dubious deals hatched with employers when he led the powerful Australian Workers' Union, is particularly intense.

The perception that he is not trustworthy has already been heightened by an ABC documentary, The Killing Season, which examined the part he played in the demise of both Gillard and Kevin Rudd, and by his own admission that he lied to a radio interviewer in 2013 about his role in those events.

However, Abbott, too, has had a difficult few weeks, confronting Cabinet divisions over gay marriage and citizenship reforms. He has faced criticism for fear-mongering over Islamic terrorism and waging an ugly war against national broadcaster the ABC.

According to the Newspoll in the Australian, he and Shorten are tied at 39 per cent as preferred prime minister. Ipsos in Fairfax Media has the Labor leader ahead by four points (43 to 39 per cent) on that criterion.

With Ipsos, Shorten's net approval rating (calculated by subtracting those who disapprove of him from those who approve) is minus 20 per cent, down 14 points in just a month. The Newspoll has him at minus 28 per cent. Abbott's net satisfaction rating has dropped by nine points to minus 23 per cent with Ipsos, and by five points to minus 27 per cent in the Newspoll.