Rudd woo's swinging Labor voters

Kevin Rudd is winning support from voters who traditionally vote Labor at a State level but vote Coalition at the Federal level.

The new poll conducted on Wednesday and Thursday evenings found that 82 per cent of Quensland ALP supporters were satisfied with Mr Rudd's performance.

This means he is starting to win over key voters in Queensland who traditionally vote for Labor Premier Peter Beattie but back Mr Howard federally.

This is a significant change to the traditional voting pattern which has seen Howard able to gather support from voters who balance their vote between Labor at a state level and the Coalition at a federal level.

If repeated in keys states such as NSW this spells big problems for the Howard Government.

The Rudd factor looks set to swing as many as 10 Queensland seats to Labor, placing the Opposition within reach of government. The Courier-Mail/Galaxy poll also shows a 10 per cent swing to Labor since the last election.

After less than three months in the job, Mr Rudd has boosted Labor's standing in his home state and opened up an impressive 10-point gap over Mr Howard as preferred prime minister.

The poll shows that if an election were held now, on a two-party preferred basis Labor would get 55 per cent of votes.

Such a result on election day would virtually guarantee Labor victory nationally and catapult Mr Rudd into the Lodge.

A similar poll in mid-November showed Labor's primary vote in Queensland was only 32 percent – it has jumped 15 per cent in three months.