CANBERRA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- The gap between the Australian government and the Opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP) has grown, according to the latest Newspoll released on Monday.
The public opinion poll, widely considered Australia's most accurate poll, found that the ALP held a 54-46 lead over Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's Liberal National Party (LNP) in the "two-party-preferred" vote.
The government's primary vote also fell from 36 to 35 percent while Labor, led by Bill Shorten, had its best primary vote result of 2017 with 38 percent of respondents saying the ALP would be their first preference if an election were held today.
Turnbull retained his lead as voter's preferred prime minister, favored by 43 percent compared to 33 percent for Shorten, but still had a three percent drop.
According to the poll, if an election were to be held in August, the ALP would win power in a landslide, winning 16 extra seats in the lower house of Australian parliament to give it 85 of 150.
The poor result for the government came after a fortnight where a host of prominent politicians were referred to Australia's High Court over concerns that they could be dual citizens.
Under Section 44 (i) of the Australian Constitution, holding citizenship in any country outside Australia makes a person ineligible to be elected to parliament.
Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Nationals Barnaby Joyce was the highest profile victim of the controversy after it was revealed he is a citizen of New Zealand.
Turnbull has been criticized for applying a double standard after Nationals Senator Matt Canavan stood down from cabinet as he awaits the High Court's ruling while Joyce was allowed to remain.
"This has developed, this whole situation, in a way that I don't think anybody in the government anticipated that it would - and now it is clearly affecting the parliament as a whole," Industry Minister Arthur Sinodinos said.
The right-wing party One Nation also saw a slight uptick in its primary vote, up 1 percent to 9 percent, after leader Pauline Hanson controversially wore a burka into the Senate.
