CANBERRA, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Voter support for the Australian government has risen for the first time since December last year, results of the latest Newspoll showed on Monday.
Last week, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced an expansion of the nation's largest green energy project, the Snowy Mountains hydroelectric power scheme, with new tunnels to be built to facilitate pumped hydroelectric power.
The announcement was made in response to crippling blackouts which had affected the nation's major cities over summer, and as a result voter confidence in the Liberal National Party (LNP) coalition government soared.
The coalition still trails the "two-party preferred" count 48 percent to Labor's 52, however it's an obvious improvement on the 45 percent to 55 percent margin it faced in the previous Newspoll. The coalition's primary vote also jumped three point to 37 percent, while Labor's fell 2 percentage points to 35 percent overall.
Interestingly, Turnbull has extended his lead in the preferred prime minister race; he leads Opposition Leader Bill Shorten 43 to 29 percent compared to the 40 to 33 percent vote recorded in the previous Newspoll, published late last month.
Turnbull also regained the lead in the net satisfaction ratings. After trailing the Labor leader by four points at the previous Newspoll, Turnbull's net satisfaction now sits at -27, one point ahead of Shorten at -28.
In the minor parties, support for the far-right One Nation party rose one point despite a disastrous campaign during the Western Australian state election, while the hard-left Greens dropped one point after party leader Richard Di Natale proposed a radical four-day working week.
