CANBERRA, April 4 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government has made up ground on the Opposition ahead of the general election, a poll has found.
According to the latest edition of Newspoll, which was published on Sunday night, the governing Coalition's primary vote has improved a point to 36 percent compared to 38 percent for the Labor Party.
The two-point margin represents a significant improvement for the government from trailing 41-35 in mid-March.
By comparison, the Coalition received 41.4 percent of first preference votes in the 2019 federal election and Labor 33.3 percent.
Newspoll found that Labor leads the Coalition 54-46 on a two-party preferred basis.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is expected to call the general election for May within days.
The poll was taken following Treasurer Josh Frydenberg handing down the federal budget for the financial year 2022/23, revealing billions of dollars in spending measures to address the rising cost of living.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese's budget reply speech was headlined by a 2.5 billion Australian dollar (1.9 billion U.S. dollar) pledge to fix a "crisis" in the aged care system.
Morrison's net approval rating -- which is measured by subtracting his disapproval rating from his approval rating -- rose two points to negative 12 while Labor leader Albanese's fell to the negative one.
Forty-three percent of voters identified Morrison as their preferred PM compared to 42 percent for Albanese, with 15 percent undecided. ■