Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and conservative opposition leader Tony Abbott drew level in voter support as reports of leaks by members of Gillard’s government threaten to destabilize her election campaign. Gillard’s rating fell 12 percentage points to 46 percent in the lead up to the Aug. 21 ballot, while Abbott rose 11 points to 46 percent compared with a survey a week earlier, a Morgan poll published today showed. The telephone survey of 680 people on July 27 and 28 has a margin of error of 3 percentage points. Gillard called a general election after ousting Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on June 24 when Labor Party factions and key labor unions switched allegiance as Rudd’s popularity with voters slumped in opinion polls to election-losing levels. “The leaks are not helping Labor,” Gary Morgan, executive chairman of Roy Morgan Research, said by phone today. “The continued disunity in the Labor Party created by Kevin Rudd supporters threatens to prolong the focus on personal issues.” Gillard’s focus in the second week of her campaign moved from touting Labor’s ability to manage the A$1.2 trillion ($1.07 trillion) economy, which grew while major economies slumped, to defending herself against leaks that Australian media reported came from within the Cabinet.

A report on Nine Network television two days ago, citing unidentified government officials, said Gillard spoke in Cabinet against a proposed rise in pension payments to the aged and a paid parental leave plan. Affordable Plans Gillard confirmed yesterday she questioned the affordability of a rise in the aged pension and the introduction of Labor’s 18-week paid parental leave policy, which she said will cost a total of A$50 billion over the next decade. “I wanted to satisfy myself that they were affordable,” Gillard told reporters in Adelaide. That followed a claim on July 15 from a Channel Nine reporter during Gillard’s National Press Club address that she had reneged on a leadership deal with Rudd. The reporter cited unidentified officials for the story and Gillard wouldn’t comment on it at the time. Another leaked report emerged on June 24 on the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that Rudd sent his 31-year-old chief of staff to meetings of Cabinet’s National Security Committee, which makes decisions on Australia’s defense. Rudd has denied being the source of the leaks and Patrick Gorman, his spokesman, said today by e-mail that the former leader won’t make any further comment. “We’ve got a totally dysfunctional government,” Abbott told ABC radio today. There’s “chaos inside the government with leak and counter-leak by the supporters of Julia Gillard and the supporters of Kevin Rudd.”

 Courtesy & From :bloomberg.com