Labor and Shorten gaining ground: poll

Australians would still rather have Scott Morrison as their prime minister than Bill Shorten but the Labor leader's popularity is improving, according to a new poll.

Labor has also extended its lead over the Liberal-National coalition in the latest Ipsos poll, published by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Monday.

The survey of 1200 Australians has found 46 per cent would rather Mr Morrison be their leader, while 37 per cent preferred Mr Shorten.

But the nine per cent gap between the pair is the tightest result on the leadership question in the past two years.

Mr Morrison lost one percentage point on the metric in the past month, while Mr Shorten gained two.

On a two-party preferred basis, 54 per cent of those surveyed said they would vote for Labor, up from 52 per cent a month ago.

That compared to 46 per cent of people who would vote for the coalition, down from 48 per cent.

Labor's primary vote also rose from 34 per cent to 37 per cent in the month, while the coalition's dipped by one per cent to 36 per cent.

If these numbers were to play out at the next election, due by May, the coalition could lose at least 18 seats.

The poll also shows Australians aren't overwhelmingly buying Labor's $32 billion plan to trim back negative gearing despite voters.

The reform divided voters with 44 per cent against the policy to restrict tax deductions on investment properties while 43 per cent were in favour and 13 per cent were unsure.