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Australian prime ministers and foreign policy

New in 2016

In 2016, 57% of Australians said a reasonable job when asked about Malcolm Turnbull.

Question Australian prime ministers and foreign policy

Now thinking about the way Australia’s foreign policy has been handled by different prime ministers over the last 15 years. In your personal view, has each of the following prime ministers done a very good job, a reasonable job, or a poor job in handling Australia’s foreign policy?

Responses from 2016.

  1. 60%
  2. 40%
  3. 20%
  4. 0%
  5. 20%
  6. 40%
  7. 60%
  8. 80%
Kevin Rudd
29
52
17
Malcolm Turnbull
21
57
11
Julia Gillard
37
47
11
Tony Abbott
51
36
10

In the 2016 Lowy Institute Poll, the prime ministers included were Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott.

  • A poor job
  • A reasonable job
  • A very good job
Total
All groups

2023 observation

Over the past 15 years, Australia has had three Labor and three Coalition prime ministers. In this Poll, we asked Australians how they rated the foreign policy performance of each of these leaders, a question we last asked in 2016.

One year into the role, Anthony Albanese is ranked the highest of all prime ministers on this measure, with 83% of Australians saying he is doing a ‘very good’ or ‘reasonable’ job handling foreign policy. He is followed by Kevin Rudd (78%), Julia Gillard (77%) and Malcolm Turnbull (69%). Australians regard Tony Abbott (50%) and Scott Morrison (46%) the least favourably on their handling of foreign policy.

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