Australian PM's support falls on boatpeople issue

A new opinion poll, published in The Australian newspaper on Tuesday, found that while Rudd remained preferred prime minister with 63 percent of voters, his satisfaction rating fell to 56 percent, down 3 percentage points in a fortnight.

Rudd scored a near record high satisfaction rating of 67 percent in October.

Support for Rudd's Labor government tumbled in early November as the country become embroiled in a heated debate over boatpeople arrivals. Critics say the government's border security policy has been softened and is attracting more boatpeople.

The slump dampened speculation of an early snap poll in 2010 over the government's carbon trading legislation, which is now before parliament for a second time vote.

But Newspoll found the government has clawed back support in the past two weeks, with Labor on 56 percent support in two-party preferred terms, up 4 percentage points, and the conservative coalition down 4 percentage points at 44 percent.

Until now the Liberal-National coalition opposition, which has been trailing badly in opinion polls, has been unable to dent the government on issues such as economic management and climate change. But in the past month the opposition has targeted the government's border security policy.

Conservative parties won a 2001 election in which asylum seekers were a key issue and, while elections are not due until late 2010, Rudd may call a snap poll in early 2010 if his emissions trading laws are again rejected by a hostile Senate.

Critics accuse Rudd of being soft on boatpeople after dismantling the previous conservative government's policy of mandatory detention.

Rudd says conflicts in South Asia are the reason for the rise in boatpeople numbers, still small by global comparisons.

There has been a constant stream of boatpeople have arrived off Australia's remote northwest coast this year, with authorities forced to rescue several from unseaworthy boats.

More than 1,600 boatpeople have arrived off Australia's northwest coast this year, mainly people fleeing violence in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

The numbers are small compared with the tens of thousands of asylum seekers sailing across the Mediterranean to Europe each year.

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