The Abbott government's second budget has strengthened the Prime Minister's grip on the leadership and shored up the position of his embattled Treasurer, Joe Hockey, with support for the Coalition rising dramatically since last month.
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In a stunning reversal of fortunes, the government has now pulled even with the Labor opposition, answering internal critics and increasing the prospect of an early election in the second half of 2015, should Tony Abbott decide to capitalise on the electoral recovery.
Mr Abbott has also shot into the lead as the preferred prime minister ahead of Labor's Bill Shorten.
At 44-39, it is the first time Mr Abbott has led on that index since April 2014 and the first time the government has been in a potentially election-winning position since February of that year.
Mr Abbott's approval rating has improved by 8 percentage points since April to be sitting at minus 8 – only slightly lower than Mr Shorten's, which has worsened to be minus 4.
The latest Fairfax-Ipsos poll has found support for the two parties is now locked at 50-50 in the immediate aftermath of the government's 2015 budget, which was noticeably softer than its 2014 formula which sent its popular standing sharply southwards.
The poll represents a cumulative 8 point switch from the 46-54 result recorded in the April survey.
It is driven by a strong bounce in the Coalition primary vote, which has jumped 4 percentage points from 39 to 43 per cent.
The ALP's primary support has sunk back to the mid-thirties and at 35 per cent – down three points since April – it is just two percentage points above its landslide-losing share of first preference votes at the 2013 election.
Greens support has improved fractionally to 13 per cent following the sudden change from former leader Christine Milne to the relatively unknown Richard Di Natale.
The overall result suggests voters may be prepared to forgive the Abbott government for a slew of broken promises and harsh spending cuts in its first budget.
The nationwide statistically weighted phone poll of 1403 voters was taken from Thursday, May 14, to Saturday, May 16.
While the findings still point to a 3.5 per cent swing against the Coalition compared to the 2013 election, it is the best result for the Abbott government in more than a year.
