Turnbull's job hanging by a thread

CANBERRA - Three opinion polls have hammered home a brutal lesson to the Australian Opposition: beware letting leader Malcolm Turnbull loose in a political china shop.

Facing a triple whammy of disastrous news in the wake of the "utegate" debacle, Turnbull is now holding his job by little more than the immediate lack of a viable replacement.

Senior Liberals were reported to be talking of a possible coup, while further speculation held that Turnbull would try to lift the party out of chaos by installing a new front bench.

But the only two possible contenders, shadow treasurer Joe Jockey and families and indigenous affairs spokesman Tony Abbott, have both laughed off suggestions that they were angling for Turnbull's job.

"We had a very tough week last week and when you've had a tough week you tend to get bad polls," Abbott said.

"But just as Malcolm didn't flinch last week, it's important that the party doesn't flinch this week."

Turnbull is also hanging tough, telling Channel Ten's Meet the Press: "We fought back, we've stood our ground and, you know, one of the tests of leadership is how you deal with adversity."

Turnbull has had no shortage of adversity since he demanded the resignations of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan for allegedly misleading Parliament by denying they had used their influence to help Brisbane car dealer John Grant seek federal financial assistance.

The attack backfired when a damning email supporting the case proved to be a fake, blasting any hope of damaging the Government and leaving Turnbull humiliated.

A Newspoll in the Australian showed the extent of the damage to Turnbull and the Opposition, who had until utegate been steadily eroding Rudd's lead.

The poll showed that since utegate erupted, voter satisfaction with Turnbull's handling of his job has plunged from 44 per cent two weeks ago to 25 per cent. This was the single biggest fall in voter satisfaction in an Opposition leader in the poll's 25-year history.

Dissatisfaction soared from 21 per cent to 58 per cent.

About 52 per cent said they did not believe Turnbull's allegations that Grant's friendship with Rudd had led to preferential treatment in seeking aid under the OzCar scheme set up to help car dealers after overseas financiers abandoned the sector because of the global economic crisis.

Rudd now leads Turnbull by 66 per cent to 25 per cent as preferred Prime Minister, according to Newspoll.

Similar ugly news was waiting for Turnbull in Fairfax newspapers.

Their latest ACNeilsen poll showed the Opposition leader's personal approval rating plummeting by 11 percentage points to 32 per cent - roughly the level that triggered the dumping of predecessor Brendan Nelson.

Worse still, Turnbull was third on the list of preferred Liberal leaders.

At the top was Peter Costello on 37 per cent, despite the former Treasurer's decision to quit politics, and Hockey, on 21 per cent. Support for Turnbull ran at 18 per cent.

And after a 6 per cent dive in its primary vote, ACNeilsen said the Opposition now trailed the Government 32 per cent to 58 per cent in the two-party preferred vote that decides Australian elections.

A Galaxy poll also showed a dive in support for the Opposition, and said that while 61 per cent thought Rudd had been open and honest about utegate, 51 per cent believed Turnbull had been "dishonest or somewhat deceitful".