Aussies are rating Dutton higher than Albo on these major personality traits – and it could spell disaster for the PM

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is seen by Aussies as a more experienced and decisive leader than Anthony Albanese, opinion polls show.

The character assessments were part of the latest Newspoll, conducted for The Australianwith voters seeing starkly contrasting strengths and weaknesses of Opposition Leader Mr Dutton and Prime Minister Mr Albanese.

When asked about his counterpart, 58 percent of voters called Mr Dutton a “strong and decisive” leader, while only 47 percent said so of Mr Albanese, marking the biggest gap in the opposition leader's favour.

Mr Dutton was rated as 'experienced' by 70 per cent of voters, compared to 66 per cent for the prime minister, while 57 per cent thought the opposition leader understood 'key issues', while only 54 per cent said the same about Mr Albanese.

This last item could be seen as a major potential problem for Labour, with voters identifying the cost of living as the issue that concerns them most.

A focus group study conducted in marginal seats in Queensland and South Australia by Melbourne pollster Redbridge identified the cost of living crisis as the main source of dissatisfaction with Mr Albanese's leadership.

“I just don't see much action on cost-of-living pressures. He's missing,” one participant said.

“He hasn't really been concerned with the cost of living,” another agreed.

“There are global factors at play, but I don't think he has taken much concrete action on them.”

It was certainly not all good news for Mr Dutton, however, as the opposition leader experienced historically low associations for a number of character traits and skills, with Mr Albanese enjoying a clear advantage in voter perception.

When asked whether they think Mr Dutton “cares for people”, only 45 percent said he did, which is the lowest benchmark for any leader in the 15 years the question has been asked.

In contrast, 61 percent of voters thought Mr. Albanese displayed caring qualities.

Mr Dutton's sympathy was also the lowest recorded in the history of the election at just 39 per cent, compared to 57 per cent for Mr Albanese.

He also set a new low bar for trustworthiness: Only 41 percent attributed this quality to him, compared to 49 percent for Mr. Albanese.

Mr Albanese scored higher than Mr Dutton on a number of points due to a number of characteristics including sympathy and 'care for people' (photo of Mr Albanese's center holding his dog Toto, who is a member of the Australian Wallaroos delighted women's rugby team at a Lodge reception in February)

The Prime Minister also scored higher on 'connecting with voters (46 to 41 per cent), 'having a vision for Australia' (59 to 55 per cent).

Mr Dutton was also more perceived as arrogant (57 percent) than Mr Albanese (46 percent).

Overall, the Newspoll found that Labor led the Coalition with 52 to 48 percent of the two-party preferential votes, which was a reversal of two percent from previous results, with the two parties neck-and-neck with each 50 percent.

Both leaders record net disapproval ratings, with Mr Albanese at minus eight and Mr Dutton at minus 11.

However, Mr Dutton has pushed Mr Albanese sharply to the side on who would make the better prime minister.

While Mr Albanese is still 11 points ahead on this measure, Mr Dutton has almost halved that gap in the past six months.