Prime Minister Julia Gillard has vowed to push on with plans for a carbon tax, despite Labor's approval rating hitting a new low.
The latest Nielsen poll showed Labor's approval was just 27 per cent, the lowest for any federal government in nearly 40 years.
It also found that 60 per cent of Australians would prefer former prime minister Kevin Rudd, ousted from the leadership a year ago, in the top job again.
Ms Gillard told reporters ahead of her address at the state ALP conference in Brisbane on Saturday that she doesn't follow the polls.
"I feel very secure. I have a plan for this country's future and my caucus colleagues are working with me to deliver that plan."
She said she would not be backing away from a carbon tax, a resources rent tax and plans to send asylum seekers to Malaysia.
"Pricing carbon is the right thing to do for this country's future and I'm going to do it," Ms Gillard said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd on Saturday rejected claims he had a heated argument with Ms Gillard on Thursday.
He said he supported the PM.
"The party, the government and the country are going through a very tough time," Mr Rudd told journalists in Brisbane.
"I believe the right and responsible action is to support the prime minister and that is what I'm doing."
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen also backed Ms Gillard and said any talk of Mr Rudd retaking the Labor leadership was "idle speculation on behalf of the media".
"Julia Gillard is a strong prime minister and she'll remain a strong prime minister, tackling the tough issues in the national interest," Mr Bowen told reporters in Sydney on Saturday.
All governments lost popularity when they made difficult decisions, Mr Bowen said.
"Governments, when they're dealing with difficult issues, whether they be carbon pricing or asylum seekers or economic reform or tax reform, will go through unpopular periods.
"It doesn't mean you shouldn't deal with tough issues," he said.
But former NSW premier Kristina Keneally said the Labor Party needed rebranding.
Talking about her government's crushing defeat at the March state election, Ms Keneally said she wanted to change Labor's brand while she was in office, but a series of scandals made that impossible.
In an article co-authored with her husband Ben Keneally, a former Labor staffer, in The Weekend Australian newspaper, she said Labor should develop a new credo appealing to the material interests of working people.
"We speak very well to the unionised workforce and we speak very well to the educated progressive class, but we don't have a brand or a method of speaking to middle Australia," she wrote.
Front page
RSS Feed