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Poll finds support for Kevin Rudd dropping

FIRST ON 7: A 7News-ReachTEL poll has found support for Kevin Rudd in Western Sydney has dropped.

The poll found the number of voters in Labor's western Sydney heartland more likely to vote for Labor if Kevin Rudd leads the party has fallen in the last three months.

36% of voters say they are more likely to vote for Labor if Kevin Rudd was leader, which is 6% less than three months ago.

31% now say they are less likely to vote for Rudd, which is up from 25% three months ago.

Almost 64% said their preferred prime minister was Tony Abbott compared to 36% to Julia Gillard.

Tony Abbott is also the preferred prime minister over Kevin Rudd, although he only manages to capture 51% of the vote versus Rudd’s 48%.

Results of the 7News-ReachTEL poll
Results of the 7News-ReachTEL poll

The poll was conducted on 1600 voters in 11 marginal seats in Western Sydney.

It’s the same poll that was conducted three months ago when Julia Gillard conducted her five day tour of Western Sydney.

The poll comes as days after Rudd took to the streets of Hurstville wearing a blue tie.

However he laughed off suggestions that his fashion choice had anything to do with the PM's claim that "men in blue ties" would dominate government under Tony Abbott.

"Like most blokes in the country I have no sense of fashion," Mr Rudd said.

"I rely upon (wife) Therese and (daughter) Jessica to buy my ties for me and this is the one that has been packed away for me for this particular occasion.

"Frankly if I had to get rid of all my blue ties I'd lose about a third of them."

Meanwhile Gillard has caused controversy after well known Perth shock jock Howard Sattler asked her in an interview whether her partner Tim Mathieson is gay.

Sattler, well known for being blunt, quizzed the Prime Minister on his afternoon show yesterday about offensive references to her body on a Liberal National Party fundraiser menu, her religious beliefs and same-sex marriage.

He then asked if he could put rumours to her about Mr Mathieson's sexual orientation.

Ms Gillard said the rumours were absurd.