Support for Australia’s conservative government has risen to its highest levels in more than six months, a widely watched poll showed on Monday, boosting Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s re-election prospects ahead of a national poll due by May. Morrison’s coalition government now trails the opposition Labor Party by 49 percent to 51 percent on a two-party preferred basis under Australia’s preferential voting system, where votes from minor parties are redistributed, a Fairfax-Ipsos poll showed. The last Fairfax-Ipsos poll in December showed the government trailing by 8 percent. While still on course for an election defeat, the poll is the best result for Morrison’s government since the ousting of former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in August 2018 in a backbench revolt. Despite voters remaining angry at the removal of his predecessor, Morrison has been able to profit from an embarrassing defeat in Australia’s House of Representatives last week. Published in Daily Times, February 19th 2019.