AFTER the 2010 election, with its drawn-out count and those interminable crossbench negotiations, opposition leader Tony Abbott pointed out that for the first time in living memory the victor, Labor, hadn’t enjoyed an immediate opinion poll boost.

But then came 7 September 2013, the contest that elevated him to prime minister, and for a second time there was no bounce. The earliest post-election polls, from Essential and Morgan, put the Abbott government’s support at the same or a slightly lower level than at the ballot box (although the first post-election Newspoll, seven weeks after the vote, did register a temporary jump in Coalition support).