AAP
The federal government is not surprised by another slump in Labor support after what Prime Minister Julia Gillard described as an appalling week for the party.
Labor's primary vote hit 30 per cent in the latest Newspoll - four points below its result two weeks ago - while the coalition lifted six points to 50 per cent.
If an election were held now Labor would face an eight per cent swing which, based on 2010 preference flows, could cost it up to 30 seats and deliver victory to the coalition.
As well, the opinion poll showed Opposition Leader Tony Abbott had an eight-point lead over Ms Gillard as preferred prime minister.
Ms Gillard said she didn't need a poll to tell her voters were shaking their heads, given Thursday's extraordinary events which began with Simon Crean's call for a leadership spill and ended with Kevin Rudd declining to challenge.
Four senior ministers - including the sacked Mr Crean - moved to the backbench, forcing Ms Gillard to reshuffle her ministry.
"I don't need a poll to tell me that last week the Labor party had an appalling week," the prime minister told ABC radio on Tuesday.
"When we present to the Australian people self-indulgently, talking about ourselves, there are consequences."
Finance Minister Penny Wong said voters indicated what they thought of the events.
"I share their view," she said.
Mr Abbott was in Sydney campaigning in the Labor-held marginal seat of Chifley on Tuesday.
Ms Gillard was heading to Western Australia for an education announcement, followed by a community cabinet meeting in Perth on Wednesday.
Asked if she would be governing or campaigning in WA - with recently returned its Liberal state government - Ms Gillard said she would be doing "a series of important things".
Meanwhile, the coalition continues to pick holes in the minority government's ministerial reshuffle.
Liberal senator George Brandis said assigning "super ministries" to a handful of senior MPs meant they would have double the responsibility and less time to dedicate to each task.
Bundling together trade and education, two of the "great departments of state", because of a lack of "heavyweight people" for the roles was also a mistake.
"This is what happens to an end-stage government - you just run out of people," Senator Brandis told Sky News.
Asked if Labor could recover its stocks with voters, new cabinet minister and WA MP Gary Gray said the party was in a similar predicament in late 1992.
Then, voters had become "completely fascinated" by opposition leader John Hewson and his Fightback policy, Mr Gray told ABC radio.
"What the Labor party did was retreat to its own core values, produce its own policy framework and win in 1993," he said.
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