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CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA - AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is the country's most popular leader in two decades after apologising to Aborigines for past injustices and ratifying the Kyoto climate pact, a poll showed on Tuesday.
Labour's Mr Rudd, who ended 11 years of conservative government rule last November, was preferred leader for 70 per cent of voters, said a Newspoll in the Australian newspaper.
The reading was the highest since the survey was first published in 1987 and also showed 69 per cent of voters supported Mr Rudd's apology to Aborigines for past injustices, a move which overturned the previous conservative government's opposition to saying sorry to the disadvantaged indigenous population.
Conservative opponents said the result reflected saturation coverage of Wednesday's apology, which was watched by Australians on huge outdoor television screens in cities across the country.
'Newly elected governments go through this sort of honeymoon and with the apology, the prime minister has received enormous publicity,' opposition spokesman Nick Minchin told local radio.
Opponents say Mr Rudd has been making 'grand gestures' like the apology and December's decision to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, again overturning the previous government policy, to maintain momentum in the wake of his crushing election win.
But the conservatives remain in disarray after the exit from politics of former prime minister John Howard, who lost his seat in the landslide to Mr Rudd after almost 12 years in power.
A television programme screened on Monday had senior members of the former government telling how they secretly pressured Mr Howard to retire from mid-2006 to rejuvenate the party.
The Newspoll showed support for new opposition leader Brendan Nelson was at just 9 per cent. Mr Nelson's poor reading will add to divisions over the conservative leadership, with lawmakers split between the former doctor and Australia's richest MP, former investment banker Malcolm Turnbull, who narrowly lost to Mr Nelson. -- REUTERS
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