Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has attempted to play down recent polling which showed the government was off to a strong start in office.
In the first Newspoll published since the election, the prime minister’s voter satisfaction rating is at 61 per cent.
The poll, published in The Australian on Monday, is the highest number recorded for a post-election Newspoll for a new prime minister since the satisfaction measure started in 1985.
However, Mr Albanese said those polling numbers would not stick around forever.
“Obviously, when you get some positive feedback, that’s good, but it won’t always be, so I’m very conscious about that,” he told Adelaide radio station FiveAA on Monday.
“Polls will go up and down, I’m just doing the job that I was elected to do.”
Mr Albanese is also ahead on the preferred prime minister measure, at 59 per cent versus 25 per cent for Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.
On a two-party preferred basis, Labor is ahead at 56 per cent compared to 44 per cent for the Liberal-National coalition.
Labor’s primary vote has lifted to 37 per cent, from 32.6 per cent at the May 21 election, against 33 per cent for the coalition.
The Greens were tracking at 12 per cent, while the teal independents were on 10 per cent.
The prime minister said the polls did show voters had reacted strongly to the change of government since the May election.
“People are responding to the positive agenda that the new government is setting,” he said.
“We need to tell people exactly what is going on, even if the message is difficult … I think people respond to a bit of honesty and integrity in politics as well.”
While Mr Albanese was on a high in the polls, his predecessor returned to parliament for the first time since he lost office.
Former prime minister Scott Morrison was sworn into parliament on Monday, alongside former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce and Labor MP Maria Vamvakinou who were also absent from the opening of parliament.
Mr Morrison is seated on the backbench for the first time in nine years after resigning from the leadership of the Liberal Party following the May federal election loss.
In the upper house, Greens senator Lidia Thorpe drew the ire of opposition benches after branding the Queen a “coloniser” while reciting the oath of allegiance.
Independent Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie said Mr Albanese wasn’t just in a honeymoon period.
“He is still doing the wedding waltz,” she told Nine Network on Monday.
But she warned there were challenges ahead, particularly on the cost of living.
“There will be a fair bit of pressure on him over the next six months,” she said.
“Living standards out there are tough, people are doing it really tough, so let’s see how it goes.”
