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Right royal thumbs down

First on 7: An exclusive 7News ReachTEL poll shows almost twice as many people surveyed oppose Tony Abbott's decision to reinstall knights and dames into the Australian honours system than those who support it.

In Western Australia to drum up voter support for Saturday's Senate rerun, the Prime Minister could not say whether voters supported his return to knights and dames.

But an exclusive 7News ReachTEL poll shows Australians have given it a right royal thumbs down.

Budget fix to be shared by all: Hockey

Only 26 per cent support the move and not even half of Coalition voters back it – with support at just 46 percent.

However, he poll shows a slight improvement in support for the Government, although they are still trailing Labor by 52 per cent to 48 per cent.

Meanwhile, Australians are feeling less confident about the economy as only 19 per cent believe they will be financially better off over the next year - down five points in the past three months.

The gloom surrounding the coming Budget has a lot to do with that and after receiving his Commission of Audit's final report on suggested spending cuts Treasurer Joe Hockey added to that gloom.

He said: "Everyone in Australia has to help to do the heavy lifting in the budget.”

Heavy lifting that might include means-testing bulkbilling, welfare cuts and, Labor claim, education cuts.