CANBERRA, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government is facing a wipe-out at the upcoming general election despite the improved popularity of Prime Minister (PM) Scott Morrison.
The latest edition of Newspoll, Australia's foremost opinion poll, revealed that the governing Liberal-National Party Coalition (LNP) trails the Opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP) 45-55 on a two-party preferred basis.
It found that the LNP's primary vote has fallen for the third consecutive poll to a near-record low 34 percent compared to the ALP's 40 percent. At the 2016 election, which the LNP won by the slimmest possible margin, the LNP received 42 percent of the nation's primary votes compared to the ALP's 34 percent.
If upheld at the 2019 election, the 45-55 margin would result in a landslide victory for the ALP and leave the LNP with as few as 56 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives.
However, the poll found that Morrison has doubled his lead as preferred PM over Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and that his personal approval rating has grown by 4 percent.
The poll was released the day after the state election in Victoria, in which the ALP won a second term in government with an overwhelming victory over the LNP on the back of a 5-percent swing towards Labor.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews' party could hold as many as 55 seats in Victoria's 88-seat lower house, up from the 48 seats it held during his first term.
The result will have a far-reaching impact on the LNP at both a state and federal level with neither side willing to take the blame for the result in Victoria, which was the party's worst in the state since 2002.
If the 5-percent swing against the LNP in Victoria is replicated in the state in the 2019 election it would be enough for Labor to gain power regardless of its gains in the Australia's five other states.
Josh Frydenberg, Australia's Treasurer and the most senior LNP member in Victoria, on Monday called a crisis meeting of Victorian Members of Parliament (MPs) to discuss their strategy for the state, which Andrews on Saturday night described as the most progressive in the nation.
"As (Victorian LNP leader) Matthew Guy himself has said, it was a state election fought on state issues and that is really important to understand," Frydenberg said on Monday.
"We know from the poll today about preferred PM that Scott Morrison is well ahead of Bill Shorten and we know that Bill Shorten is no Dan Andrews.
"That being said we are very much aware of the scale of the challenge that is ahead of us both in Victoria and across the country."
Saturday's Victorian election was the Liberal Party's biggest test since the federal party deposed Malcolm Turnbull as PM in August and installed Morrison as leader.
The party was hardest-hit in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, an area that has traditionally been its heartland.
Tim Wilson, a federal LNP MP for Melbourne's south-east, dismissed the notion that the Victorian result would not have implications for the 2019 election.
"I sat there on polling booths and every second person either gave me deadly silence, a very cold deadly silence, or there was people mentioning energy, climate or the deposing of the (former) prime minister," he told Sky News Australia.
"I think we can get past that, but I know the people who vote for me, I know them very well, and I can tell you they are not rusted on conservatives and out there on the battle gates.
"They are a forward-looking, modern, liberal community and they sent us a message very clearly."
