Core support for Labor was at its equal lowest level since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese came to power in 2022, according to the latest Newspoll released on Monday, which also registered a bump for the coalition.
The government's primary vote share was 27 per cent, behind One Nation on 28 per cent but ahead of the coalition on 21 per cent, The Australian's survey showed.
The sobering tally has put the onus on Labor frontbenchers to burnish their economic management credentials while the prime minister schmoozes world leaders at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in the Caribbean.
It also comes as borrowers brace for a likely fifth interest rate rise for 2026 on Tuesday, which could hitch the cash rate up to 4.85 per cent - its highest level in 18 years.
Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek on Monday said Labor was being hamstrung on savings measures when pressed on how the government would tighten its belt.
"We will make savings - we've made $180 billion worth of savings already, but we don't want to make savings that hurt people," she told Seven's Sunrise.
"We've got billions of dollars of savings tied up in the Senate because we can't get the Greens or One Nation or the coalition to vote for them."
Ms Plibersek defended the government's electric vehicle tax breaks and subsidies for home batteries, whose costs have blown out amid higher-than-expected demand and have been described as middle-class welfare.
"Those subsidies ... really have made a big difference to people's energy bills - some people are paying nothing now for their electricity."
The Greens and coalition recently teamed up to throw out legislation reducing private health insurance rebates for over-65s, meant to redirect $3 billion into aged care improvements.
Labor is poised to put more belt-tightening measures into the mid-financial year budget update due in December.
In light of Monday's poll, One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce said Ms Plibersek, who has the second-highest approval rating of any Labor frontbencher, "could definitely do the job" of prime minister in Anthony Albanese's place.
"Tanya is a very capable lady, but unfortunately, Tanya is not doing the job, and Mr Albanese has lost confidence with the people," he said.
"Prime minister, they're over you, and if you stay there, it's not going to get better."
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson gained more ground in the latest Newspoll, landing at a net approval rating of minus one ahead of Angus Taylor at minus 10, and the prime minister at minus 23.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers fared worst in the tally's minister-by-minister breakdown, earning the disapproval of 40 per cent of voters, while Foreign Minister Penny Wong led the approval ratings at 38 per cent.
"There's been no reforming treasurer in Australian history that hasn't copped it when they've made big changes - we all support Jim," Ms Plibersek said.
"We all make decisions together, they are tough decisions - they're exactly the tough decisions that Barnaby and all his friends say the country needs."
Mr Chalmers last week said he took responsibility for "difficult things in my portfolio" and he would leave it for other ministers to take responsibility for spending on their patches.
That came after reports of tension between Mr Albanese and the treasurer over plans the latter had put forward to find budget savings, which Finance Minister Katy Gallagher had on Sunday described as "overblown".
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